> There would be no way to reverse decade old decisions that simply aren't the right decision anymore. Every new feature would need to be built on top of code from 1984.
Of all the reasons to prefer a new language, this is the worst one from a platform perspective.
C and POSIX allowed Unix to conquer the world. They allow code written since the 1980s to run with minimal modifications even on modern systems. The other major operating system family -- Windows -- is also strongly associated with backward compatibility.
Everybody always wants to throw away the legacy code, because maintaining it is expensive. But throwing it all away and starting over from scratch can be more expensive. Especially when you're dealing with millions of lines of third party code. Which is why the only platforms that are still popular after 30+ years are the ones that didn't force everybody to do that.
Of all the reasons to prefer a new language, this is the worst one from a platform perspective.
C and POSIX allowed Unix to conquer the world. They allow code written since the 1980s to run with minimal modifications even on modern systems. The other major operating system family -- Windows -- is also strongly associated with backward compatibility.
Everybody always wants to throw away the legacy code, because maintaining it is expensive. But throwing it all away and starting over from scratch can be more expensive. Especially when you're dealing with millions of lines of third party code. Which is why the only platforms that are still popular after 30+ years are the ones that didn't force everybody to do that.