Re: Java

[Tony Kimball <address@hidden>]

Quoth Jeremy Hylton on Friday, 7 December:
: 
: Has anyone ever made a successful business of selling a language?
: 

Microsoft began with a CP/M Basic interpreter, if I recall.  Forth and
Poplog might be examples, depending on the intention of your query,
but my knowledge of their business histories is dim and faded.  I
don't think an unqualified "yes" would be a good answer to your
question, but neither would an unqualified "no".  Several compiler
vendors have seen some success.  Delphi is not Borland-cum-Inprise's
sole product, but it is an important revenue generator for them.

Have novel language implementations turned a profit?  Definitely.
Have any of these seized the mainstream of computing, or resulted
in a persistent multinational corporation?  Very questionable.
Perhaps Inprise, with Delphi, would qualify.  Perhaps Microsoft,
with Visual Basic, would qualify.

Sun appears to pin some of it's hope for future hardware sales on
being the preferred platform for JVMs.  Depending on your
intention, that might qualify as well.