[Haskell-cafe] Re: The programming language market

[Artem V. Andreev]

jerzy.karczmarczuk at info.unicaen.fr writes:

> Tim Chevalier/Paul Johnson about "cheap computers, expensive programmers"
>
>>> > This is true only if talking to people in high-income nations.
>>> >
>>> Even in low-income nations, its only false in the short term.  If you
>>> have skilled programmers with computers and Internet connections then
>>> their wages inflate to the world norm.  IIRC India is seeing 20%/year
>>> wage inflation...
>
>> It's true that India seems to be going in that direction, but
>> personally I don't feel I have the background or temerity to suggest
>> that it will definitely happen for the rest of the world.
>
> The issue is less related to the actual income, but to the global politics,
> sometimes doctrinal. Not always the "invisible hand" of market may easily
> change things, and if a given nation/country has historical strong views
> on the "power of the people", the evolution is different than at your place.
> India doesn't seem to boast that they are numerous and powerful. Chinese
> do... We shall see.
>
> You may perhaps remember (which you won't, because you are too young) the
> glorious times when computers became a reality even in Soviet Union. They
> had at that time plenty of really good mathematicians. But the totalitarian
> view of the science, plus the nationalistic proudness, made them (the rulers
> not the scientists...) think and say that with so many good people, there
> is no need to develop the programming automated tools.
>
> They neglected the programming languages. Russia and their satellites became
> a kind of desert here not only because of economical problems...
Not wishing to refute your general point, I can only note that U.S.S.R did 
have its own school of computer science in general, and of developing
programming language implementations in particular. 
There were Fortran and Algol compilers, there is Refal, after all, 
which is a purely Soviet invention (and which, for that matter, 
is still being taught in several Russian universities).
So in this particular respect you are definitely wrong.

-- 

					S. Y. A(R). A.