I’ve found this talk to be informative; I don’t know any funder interested in better programming languages. (From an EA perspective, it seems not very neglected, even if I was a funder only interested in software, I’d be looking at funding a new browser engine).
I think it is interesting that you think it is not very neglected. I assume you think that because languages like Rust, Kotlin, Go, Swift, and Zig have received various funding levels. Also, academic research is funding languages like Haskell, Scala, Lean, etc.
I suppose that is better than nothing. However, from my perspective, that is mostly funding the wrong things and even funding some of those languages inadequately. As I mentioned, Rust and Go show signs of being pushed to market too soon in ways that will be permanently harmful to the developers using them. Most of those languages aren’t improving programming languages in any meaningful way. They are making very minor changes at the margin. Of the ones I listed, I would say only Rust and Scala have made any real advances in mainstream languages, and Scala is still mired in many problems because of the JVM ecosystem. On the other hand, the Go language has been heavily funded and pushed by Google and has set programming languages back significantly.
I would say there is almost no path to funding a language that is both meant for widespread general use and pushes languages forward. Many of the languages that have received funding did so by luck and were funded too late in the process and underfunded. There is no funding that actually seeks out good early-stage languages and funds them.
Also, many of those languages got funding by luck. Luck is not a funding plan.
Also, academic research is funding languages like Haskell, Scala, Lean, etc.
I don’t know about others, but Lean was funded not by academics. It was funded by a private fund ConvergentResearch. They target somewhere between academics and VC. I know this because Lean is the closest analogy to my project, although with a different mission. I tried to apply, but they didn’t reply. Maybe they will find your proposal more appealing.
Anyway, the emergence of such funds as ConvergentResearch and OpenPhilanthropy is a promising trend.
I’ve found this talk to be informative; I don’t know any funder interested in better programming languages. (From an EA perspective, it seems not very neglected, even if I was a funder only interested in software, I’d be looking at funding a new browser engine).
I think it is interesting that you think it is not very neglected. I assume you think that because languages like Rust, Kotlin, Go, Swift, and Zig have received various funding levels. Also, academic research is funding languages like Haskell, Scala, Lean, etc.
I suppose that is better than nothing. However, from my perspective, that is mostly funding the wrong things and even funding some of those languages inadequately. As I mentioned, Rust and Go show signs of being pushed to market too soon in ways that will be permanently harmful to the developers using them. Most of those languages aren’t improving programming languages in any meaningful way. They are making very minor changes at the margin. Of the ones I listed, I would say only Rust and Scala have made any real advances in mainstream languages, and Scala is still mired in many problems because of the JVM ecosystem. On the other hand, the Go language has been heavily funded and pushed by Google and has set programming languages back significantly.
I would say there is almost no path to funding a language that is both meant for widespread general use and pushes languages forward. Many of the languages that have received funding did so by luck and were funded too late in the process and underfunded. There is no funding that actually seeks out good early-stage languages and funds them.
Also, many of those languages got funding by luck. Luck is not a funding plan.
I don’t know about others, but Lean was funded not by academics. It was funded by a private fund ConvergentResearch. They target somewhere between academics and VC. I know this because Lean is the closest analogy to my project, although with a different mission. I tried to apply, but they didn’t reply. Maybe they will find your proposal more appealing.
Anyway, the emergence of such funds as ConvergentResearch and OpenPhilanthropy is a promising trend.