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Comment by eddtests | Hacker News Reader

Who would risk using a closed-source language? I know some academic groups using Matlab, and I know some engineering companies use tools like Simulink, but these are very established products. I don't think I could even get sign-off for using a new closed language for a work project...

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It's just a liability and risk. Imagine you have some mission-critical system written in such language, the vendor goes bankrupt or creates absolutely unacceptable terms. Then you have a problem.

Sure if something similar happened to an open-source project, you would still have to either hire engineers to work on the compiler/tooling/language or to rewrite it in a more supported language, but I would consider it a little less riskier as you aren't dependent on one vendor

I agree. It's not "here" until it's open-source.

> I don't think I could even get sign-off for using a new closed language for a work project...

Not with that kind of honesty, but call it a product/framework/partner for automatically optimizing in-house python code or something like that, and it sails right through.

Given Lattner's record, I think it would be a bad assumption to think it will stay closed.

Yeah, a lot of folks don't seem to be aware of the people behind this, and their history. Swift was originally closed source too. He's explained that this sort of "incubation period" is helpful for working out the kinks with a small core team.

Okay I looked up the team and agree they are brilliant, but I still don't know if I trust them to make this open in the longterm. Why can't they open it on Github but just not accept PRs?

I believe K is still quite popular at various banks.

Probably, but again K is a language from 1993. I think closed-source languages are relics from a time it was more normal and some are so established they're still accepted, but new closed-source languages feel out of touch. Can you think of any new ones that caught on? I really can't to be honest!

Game Maker Language is the only one I can think of with a large number of active users and community resources.

Yeah I agree, I wouldn't launch a new closed source proprietary language these days. The few that found their niche 20-25 years ago seem to do a decent job of sticking around though.

> Who would risk using a closed-source language?

Who doesn’t want a 68.000x speed-up!

I signed up for the SDK and the generated codes are taking 2+ minutes to be sent to my email address - imagine if this was 68,000 times slower! :O

What if someone were to take away our Mojo?

Oh, behave

Edit: Now I have Austin Powers stuck in my head when I see Mojo

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