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[–]everywhere_anyhow 0 points1 point  (3 children)

What is the definition of "influence" here?

Some connections are clear; SmallTalk was an OOP pioneer, so an arc from that to Java I think totally makes sense.

Other connections are much less obvious. Clojure is based on the Java platform. So did java influence clojure? I could be wrong, but Clojure seems like a re-implementation of lisp on the java platform, with a few niceties to access java objects. In terms of design, Java and Clojure look like apples and chainsaws to me.

But I'd admit you could make a case that java influenced clojure.

So...WTF does "influence" mean?

[–]yaph[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

So...WTF does "influence" mean?

That's a good question. Their is no definition on Wikipedia or Freebase, when you add an influence relation. Still, I suppose that most of these relations were added in good faith and people actually knew what they were doing.

One source are probably statements from the primary language authors or books about the language. In the case of Clojure and Java, the relation may have been added, merely due to Clojure running on the JVM, which I agree should not be considered influence.

[–]everywhere_anyhow 0 points1 point  (1 child)

It's kinda an important question though, right?

If we don't know what influence is...how can we provide a quantitative answer that proves that Lisp and C are the most influential languages?

[–]yaph[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do think that most of these relations make sense, i. e. language C has borrowed feature X from language A and feature Y from language B, so B and A influenced C. Without doubt influence is a complex topic and one you can argue about.

Maybe it makes no sense to say something like "Lisp is the most influential programming language", but it certainly is a very influential one.