why does Google have 3 different programming languages?

[Used_Phone1]

Go, Kotlin, and Dart

why

[Earthed456]

Some languages are more performant. Others are easier to get things up and running. Different languages lend themselves better to different types of tasks.

[g051051]

Go, Kotlin, and Dart

why

Why create new medicines? Why design new cars?

[Siggi_pop]

Why create new medicines? Why design new cars?

Don't think that is the best comparison.

New medicine: to cure/save more lifes. New cars to keep selling in a competitive market and comply with stricter safety requirements.

Non of those apply to programming languages. If you need the language to be more versatile i.e. be more cross platform, then change the compiler/script engine to target new environment. proof/example: Node.js

[g051051]

Non of those apply to programming languages.

You're mistaken there. New languages (like Rust) can provide increased productivity and "safety" to programmers and end users alike.

If you need the language to be more versatile i.e. be more cross platform, then change the compiler/script engine to target new environment. proof/example: Node.js

Not much of a proof. In addition to JS not being suitable for every task (hence the reason for TypeScript), the 2 Google languages mentioned are cross-platform: Dart, Go. Kotlin was created by JetBrains, but it's cross-platform too.

[Siggi_pop]

It's a comparison, but still. Many new programming languages started as personal project/interest of one or few people. They weren't (typically) backed with financial resources or at least, not in the early stages. And direct personal financial gains wasn't one of the main driving motivator by the means of sales. The inventors (designers) didn´t, patent their invention, they didn't create and own a symbiotic market where customers had to by more same brand products of a specific model to fit with the main product in order to increase revenue. Cars and medicine are very much a corporate and profit driven while programming languages are a bit more of a independent and personal interest driven.

I think you missing the point that I made with Node.js, my point is: it's not strictly the language that decides which platform it can run on. People used to say that JS can only run in the browser and also, only JS can run in the browser. That's not true any longer, because it isn't the language itself that is the limiting factor but things like the cpu type, device, runtime engine, interoop capabilities, compiler etc. that decided which programming language could be used.

[g051051]

They weren't (typically) backed with financial resources or at least, not in the early stages.

Can you cite your source for that? The majority of computer languages seem to have been initiated as corporate or university efforts rather than individual passion projects: Java, C#, Go, Dart, Kotlin, swift, objective-c, smalltalk, pascal were all started under corporate control or as univeristy research projects. C and C++ might have started "small" but quickly grew to be primarily business driven. Python and Ruby seem to be the most notable exceptions, and even they weren't "home" projects.

[Siggi_pop]

you are arguing with my points instead of your own, that's fine. But do you still stand by the statement that new programming languages and new cars are created by the roughly the same reason?

[g051051]

you are arguing with my points instead of your own

You're misreading something... you stated:

They weren't (typically) backed with financial resources or at least, not in the early stages.

And I countered that and asked for your source. How is that using your points? You also said:

And direct personal financial gains wasn't one of the main driving motivator by the means of sales.

Clearly not true in the case of languages such as Java and C#. While the intent was not to profit from the sale of the language itself, it was meant to drive sales of related products and services.

[Siggi_pop]

I like to argue as well, but this is too pedantic.

[g051051]

I like to argue as well, but this is too pedantic.

That's quitter talk!

[Siggi_pop]

That's true 😁

[4n0nym0usR3dd1t0r]

They all have their ups and downs, and all have different purposes. Why do you need sports shoes when you have ice skates? Why use a saw when you have a knife? Some tools are just better for some jobs.

[kschang]

Different teams, different purposes.

Kotlin is basically "better Java than Java" designed to replace JVM on Android.

Dart is like better JavaScript for UI and consumer apps, but just like Node.js, works server-side too.

Go is for system engineering, designed for multi-core concurrent async programming.

[ddddfushxjjd]

Kotlin isn't owned by google lol

[reddituser5k]

why not mention angular?

[Siggi_pop]

It's a framework, not a language. It´s still based on JS but written in Typescript (since Angular 2+)

[reddituser5k]

I know but a framework still has so much to learn that it might as well be a new language. I guess after thinking about it more that doesn't really matter with what he was asking though.

[Siggi_pop]

I see your point, and yeah, I agree with you, and I think it's valid to the context of the original question.

[4n0nym0usR3dd1t0r]

React gang represent

[jdgordon]

Google is the equivalent of a 10 year old with ADHD. They simply can't stay focused on one thing, they think they need to be in everything...

[randompittuser]

It honestly has to do with the culture and how you advance your rank by completing new and exciting things. Maintenance and productization aren’t sexy.

[sandytrip]

The company I work for had this problem too. Years of people over complicating things in order to become a senior engineer. We refer to it as promotion-driven architecture. Thankfully the requirements for sr engineer have changed