Talk:General-purpose programming language

This redirect
Um, this redirect doesn't make any sense. 13.12.254.95 (talk) 00:15, 11 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Actually, the redirect does make some sense: a general-purpose programming language is one that applies to multiple domains and, hence, is defined as the opposite to a domain-specific language. A brief overview of differences is given in the target article.  +  A.Ou  21:59, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

If this is general purpose, the term is completely meaningless
There must be some sort of stricter definition of "general purpose" available that prevents clearly domain-specific languages from being listed such as Python, PHP, JavaScript, Lua, and Perl? If these languages are general purpose, the term is meaningless because you can make it apply to any language regardless of that languages actual intent. That's just bad engineering. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.123.48.51 (talk) 14:52, 21 November 2016 (UTC)


 * I agree, except maybe for Python which I think could be considered general-purpose. 90.227.25.67 (talk) 11:23, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Bad list
Most of the listed languages were not designed as general-purpose, nor used as general-purpose. In the 1960s, languages tended to be divided into "scientific" (Fortran and Algol), "business" (Cobol, RPG), and special-purpose: Simula for simulation, Lisp for list processing and symbolic calculation, Snobol for string processing, etc. PL/I was specifically designed to cover both business and scientific applications, unlike Fortran and Cobol. Basic and Pascal were designed specifically as teaching languages: Pascal didn't even have proper strings. Later, Ada was designed specifically for embedded applications. Haskell and NPL were specifically designed for functional programming. etc. etc. Dart was designed for apps. The list should also not include less commonly used languages like Boo, NIM, D, and Idris. The whole concept is suspect at this point.... --Macrakis (talk) 18:17, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

DSLs becoming GPLs
Article says:
 * For example, COBOL, Fortran, and Lisp were created as DSLs (for business processing, numeric computation, and symbolic processing), but became GPL’s over time.

Really? Is there any mathematical software written in COBOL? How many General Ledger applications are written in Fortran? (probably some, but not many). Although I'm a Lisp old-timer, and it's been used for all sorts of things (even an airline pricing system), I don't think it's widely perceived as a GPL.

Some better candidates for special-purpose languages that have become general-purpose are C and Python. C started as a systems-programming language, but a fair amount of mathematical, business, GUI, etc. programming is done in it. The 0.9.1 release notes for Python (1991) said: "Python can be used instead of shell, Awk or Perl scripts, to write prototypes of real applications, or as an extension language of large systems, you name it." But today it is widely used for numerical applications, for Web applications, etc. etc. --Macrakis (talk) 23:25, 15 December 2022 (UTC)