> And you might say that it's their loss, and I'd probably agree with you.
Enough people give up, though, and it's your loss as a user of that language. Say out of every 100 people that give up, 1 is someone who is capable of contributing something good back, and 10 are people who might have answered questions on mailing lists or IRC, or written some blog entries or something. Languages do have network effects.
Sure, but it's hard to say if adding or omitting a feature is going to be a net win for a growing user base. All things being equal, I'd rather a somewhat smaller user base for a language that is more easily internalized than a larger user base where you really do need the extra help to understand all the quirks of a language.
Enough people give up, though, and it's your loss as a user of that language. Say out of every 100 people that give up, 1 is someone who is capable of contributing something good back, and 10 are people who might have answered questions on mailing lists or IRC, or written some blog entries or something. Languages do have network effects.