> I feel like once a language is standardized (or reaches 1.0), that's it. You're done. No more changes. You wanna make improvements? Try out some new ideas? Fine, do that in a new language.
Thank goodness this is not how the software world works overall. I'm not sure you understand the implications of what you ask for.
> if they aren't cheekily mutating over the years
You're complaining about languages mutating, then mention C++ which has added stuff but maintained backwards compatibility over the course of many standards (aside from a few hiccups like auto_ptr, which was also short lived), with a high aversion to modifying existing stuff.
Aside from "the right tool for the right job" kind of conversation, there's one inherent aspect to chasing the most popular language (given that you find an actual ranking that's put up meaningfully, which I don't think the TIOBE index is): you may find more people able and willing to work with it, which can sometimes be a feature.
I've been in a company which had a major refactor need, and they took the opportunity to slowly convert their backend from PHP to Go* because they couldn't find any good PHP developer (let alone any willing to work in PHP). For the actual project, it kinda worked, but for the recruitment, it went from not having any applicants / very mediocre people, to having way more people applying, and a few competent ones in that pool.
* As to whether that was the right choice, that's a completely different topic...
If a city enforces a new speed limit somewhere and only people living outside of the city break that speed limit, you argue that the law isn't applied equally because no resident of the city has been fined so far?
That's the most backward way of trying to prove a point (without even addressing whether DMA and GDPR are a good thing or not, just based on that...)
According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, there are 7 million unemployed in the U.S. currently.
I don't know how you expect these to cover for all the manufacturing you imply might come back to the U.S. with these tariffs, and that's assuming the space and the production means (factories, etc.) are here already. They aren't, and not for a couple years.
Combined to the fact that the U.S. is clearly sending a signal that coming there is dangerous now, especially for any other category than white males, and I don't see how you can even imagine that this situation is going to be working out.
If it's been proven that a politician will cheat democracy, how is banning them from running for office a bad thing? And who should decide that if not the courts?
How would that be any different than banning someone from running a company after they've been found guilty of fraud or any other way of breaking the law about how to run companies?
If they've been proven unable to follow the law, they shouldn't be able to be elected.
As some extra context here, the judge mentioned that she was totally recognizing how heavy the situation was. But she mentioned a few things:
- it's been found that it was all part of a system designed from the very top of the party (so MLP) to embezzle money
- it's been noted that during the entire procedure, all the defendants showed complete denial of the facts and no will to accept that they did something bad
As such she pointed out that they was a high risk that they would do it again, and that's what tipped the scale in favor of banning them right away. I agree with that.
My concern is that courts can become corrupted or influenced by those in power, which creates a serious problem. While courts should have the authority to issue sentences—like prison terms—they shouldn’t be the ones deciding who the public is allowed to vote for.
If people want to vote for someone, that’s their democratic right. And if they make a mistake, they’ll learn from the consequences. But the decision should ultimately rest with the voters, not the courts.
All I have seen is that four people worked for the party while being paid by the EU. Nothing like routing money to advertising campaigns or anything that would actually swing an election. And the headlines are all about embezzlement, not election fraud. So this seems like a stretch.
I read that 9 European representatives, plus 12 assistants, plus 4 other members of the party were found guilty as part of a scheme to earn illegally EUR 2.9M for the party.
Say the person who the public vote for is in prison (and to make it "easier", prior to running for office. Or maybe they were a write-in).
That decision should lie with the voters, you say.
So which takes precedence? Prison, where they are serving a sentence? Or the democratic role?
After all, the same public, using their democratic rights, voted for a system in which that person was sentenced to prison.
So which vote is more important? The vote that says that "X is a crime, and if you are justly convicted, the sentence is Y"? Or the vote that says "If I want you to be our leader, that's more important than that previous application of justice"?
"If they've been proven unable to follow the law, they shouldn't be able to be elected."
Because it gives incumbents a strong incentive to try influencing the courts against their opponents.
I believe - yes, it is my opinion only - that existence of such incentives and a temptation to act upon them is, in the long run, more dangerous to democracy than allowing felons into elections.
People respond to incentives. If we know anything at all about human behavior, it is that people respond to incentives. And there is no shiny nice wall separating democracies from authoritarian states. Countries slide along the scale, and they can absolutely slide in the wrong direction.
I come from a former Communist country and the far left in power twisted justice beyond any recognition. We had the "pleasure" being occupied by the Nazis and then ruled by the Stalinists and the bothside-ism is absolutely spot on, because these two systems are like evil brothers.
And as for France, that is why I don't trust Mélenchon any more than Le Pen, and they have 50 per cent of voters between them. Two far-somethings don't make a democracy.
Judges sitting in those courts are not politicians elected to take decisions weighted by how their constituents will like them and reelect them, but people who've studied law and its application (unlike politicians who can be anyone), who have been vetted by peers for their capacity to be law "technicians", and whose job is to "apply" the law, whether they disagree with it or not.
That's the concept of the separation of powers. Of course judges will have opinions and can never truly be objective (no such thing exists anyway), but their main job is to apply the law. And the concept of appeal and (in France) "cassation", which meana judgment can be revised up to two times, are there so that no single judge ruling can be definitive in isolation.
If politicians can use the judicial system to ban political opponents, the system is broken and powers are not separated in the right way. And I'll definitely not say that France has a perfect separation (the president concentrate a lot more than it should), but it's still there and this wasn't such a case (in the past two years, Le Pen and the RN is the group that Macron has been willingly compromising with and letting arbitrate a lot of stuff)
There is no final arbitrator that is above all others.
Liberal democracies are build on the principle that no institution is beyond corruption. That's why they build systems based on separation of powers and checks and balances.
(1) Courts should be independent, because executive branch can be corrupt and law-making branch (voters and their representatives) don't always want to follow the laws they set up.
(2) Law making branch (elections, representatives) should be immune from courts and executive branch messing with them. Lawmakers have immunity from courts and executive. Courts and executive branch should not be able to limit candidates too much.
(3) Executive branch should execute laws, but not allowed to make them. Courts should keep the executive branch in check and have at least some immunity form it.
It's all balancing acts. Different countries have different balances.
> And who should decide that if not the courts?
We could trust voters to take that into the account when making decision who to vote.
> Liberal democracies are build on the principle that no institution is beyond corruption.
It's an ontological issue, if everyone is potentially compromised, how do you know anything ? It's also leveraged by biased medias to discredit old institutions and suddenly no more counter powers..
It's the pragmatic acknowledgment that human fallibility necessitated institutional safeguards against the concentration of power. Enlightenment thinkers like Montesquieu, came up with it.
"The left". Would be nice to see how you came to this conclusion. Justice applies the law and she was found breaking it.
Also the current government is, by the most lenient definition in France, center-right. Although it shouldn't interfere with the justice system in any direct way, lest we want to enshrine even more the fact that politician in position of power shouldn't ever face consequences.
A class that is not interactive then doesn't have to be a class. It could be a book or a set of slides with an audio narration and that'd have the same result.
Teachers that can only read their notes and write stuff on a board without ever interacting are of the most useless kind. They're completely replaceable by course material.
Thank goodness this is not how the software world works overall. I'm not sure you understand the implications of what you ask for.
> if they aren't cheekily mutating over the years
You're complaining about languages mutating, then mention C++ which has added stuff but maintained backwards compatibility over the course of many standards (aside from a few hiccups like auto_ptr, which was also short lived), with a high aversion to modifying existing stuff.
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