| ▲ | david-gpu 17 hours ago |
| > Esperanto is certainly not better than English; and I really doubt Lua is better than Javascript Doesn't that depend on how one decides to "score" a language? And I think that's what the author is getting at, too. |
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| ▲ | flysand7 17 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| I caught a different meaning from this entire sentence. I think the author was alluding to the fact that even if you replace a technology with something "better", at the end it doesn't matter, because Most People will keep using Twitter, Most People will keep using QWERTY layout, count all of your acquaintances, I doubt any of them speak Esperanto. Well at least the idea comes through, but I don't think it makes sense to argue whether Lua is actually better than JavaScript or not. |
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| ▲ | david-gpu 17 hours ago | parent [-] | | Indeed. If one primarily values certain technical aspects, Beta was "better" than VHS. But if one primarily values popularity, profitability or practicality, then VHS was "better". And so on with the other examples. So when we go back to this: > Esperanto is certainly not better than English; and I really doubt Lua is better than Javascript All I get from it is "I personally have a strong opinion about what makes a language 'better'". Nothing wrong with that, but it's independent from the argument made by TFA. Perhaps I misinterpreted. |
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| ▲ | coldtea 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| >Doesn't that depend on how one decides to "score" a language? Not as much, because not all ways of scoring a language are as good either, and in the ways of scoring that matter, English is better than Esperanto. |
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| ▲ | fragmede 16 hours ago | parent [-] | | In terms of not being a bag of special cases, and thus easy to use, Esperanto is better than English. Like, if you were to design a language from first principles, you'd come up with Esperanto. The only problem is the massive inertia English has, which makes it "better". In terms of design, it's absolute trash. But it's what humanity's got. Trying to learn English as a second or third or fifth language is just so difficult. | | |
| ▲ | mf_tomb 15 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Those special cases are useful or the natural result of speakers coming from other languages. If esperanto were used widely for many years, it would also develop special cases over time. In 200 years, it would be as irregular as english, as it borrowed words and phrases from other languages. | |
| ▲ | coldtea 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | >Like, if you were to design a language from first principles, you'd come up with Esperanto That's the problem. It's design by commitee instead of evolutionary organic design. It's how cyborgs think people oughta talk. |
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