On 25 Feb, 19:44, Nicola Musatti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Witness the kind of > libraries/framework that used to and still come with some commercial C+ > + implementation, and even some free/open source ones; Boost, ACE and > wxWidgets are the first that come to mind.
Oh, that's another good reason for C++'s decline: the fragmentation of the development community through a plethora of proprietary products, each one with its advocates and a relatively small common ground (admittedly growing over the years thanks to Free Software and standards) between them all. When Java came along, even though the best GUI offering was AWT, it was better than nothing and it was one of the batteries included. Although Sun's Java was also proprietary, it was easier for people to obtain and redistribute, often without per- seat or per-unit licensing costs. Of course, C++ isn't the only language with this problem. The Lisp scene has also been plagued by an unnecessary deference to commercial interests, which means that the hottest topic on comp.lang.lisp right now is probably Paul Graham's much-anticipated but arguably disappointing Lisp "successor", Arc, amongst the usual in-fighting and parade-dampening. Paul -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
