What business model for the 100YL?

2 points by jcrites 15y ago ↗ HN

Paul Graham has written about the notion of the "hundred year language". I believe that the ideal 100YL will encompass every modern programming language use-case: interactive command-line interfaces (shells), systems administration & shell scripting, mathematical languages (Matlab/Mathematica), rapid prototyping (Python/Perl/Ruby), active content (JavaScript), and enterprise software (C#/Java).

Assume you could combine all these diverse use-cases and capabilities into a single programming language.

Is there a viable business model for such a language? Must it inherently be free to prosper as a language? What about free for noncommercial use, but put paid for for-profit use?

If you built such a language, how would you offer it to the world? Would you release it for free? Or would you try to build a business juggernaut?

1 comment

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jcrites 15y ago ↗

Assume the BSD or Apache license:

Could the language have a not-for-profit entity devoted to managing the language, and license the use of the language commercially to a for-profit corporation dedicated to selling and supporting its use in industry?

Would this discourage open source contribution?