Why did non-von Neumann languages never became mainstream?
A:
Probably because non Von Neumann machines never really became mainstream. We already have a certain model of the machine in our heads; it's probably easier to implement a language that works in the same way, and to train programmers in such a language.
Of course, maybe the reason VN architecture is dominant is that there are no good non-VN programming languages... but asking why the architecture is the dominant one probably deserves a different question.
Also, I'm not sure there's a clear distinction between languages that are "Von-Neumann languages" and those that aren't. Are functional languages considered VN ones? They deviate from the classic VN model in some regards, but are similar to it in others. And many functional languages are mainstream.
Oak
2010-07-04 13:12:11
+1
A:
One reason is lack of a killer language: APL is one of the most well-known non-Von Neumann languages, but it's not exactly easy to pick up for most people.
Does Haskell written in point-free style count as non-von Neumann programming language? If so, that's probably the most wide-spread example of current non-von Neumann languages.
Hank Gay
2010-07-04 13:16:49
The lack of a killer language is a good point, but maybe it is in itself caused by the fact that non-VN languages are somehow trickier to write/understand.
Oak
2010-07-04 13:23:46
Why did you mark this question as subjective? It is similar to "Why did the dinos not survive?" which I do not consider having only 'subjective' answers. Typical questions here on SO like "Is Pythonic to use bools as ints" are much more 'subjective' but get not marked as such.
John
2010-07-04 13:49:08
"One reason is lack of a killer language." Well, perhaps it is better to have no killer languages like APL then killing languages like C++? But this answers nothing. It just moves the question around: Why are there no killer non-von Neumann languages? Is it not possible to create non-VN languages as accessible as C? Why not?
John
2010-07-04 13:49:33
@John If I happen to look at a "Is it Pythonic…" question, I usually tag it as "subjective". In my view, anything to do with popularity is inherently subjective. As for why there isn't a killer language, that's an interesting question: is it because it's an inherent problem, or because nobody has found a good way to do it? I'd certainly be interested in an intuitive non-von Neumann language.
Hank Gay
2010-07-04 14:03:26
+1 @Norman. Nice answer. My motivation: Konrad Suse. He was born 22 June 1910 (!). He invented "Plan Calculus" (Plankalkül) which Wikipedia describes "as the first high-level non-von Neumann programming language". Thanks.
John
2010-07-04 20:03:49