From: "Ken Peek" <Reply.To.The.Group / LeaveMeAlone.invalid>
> It is ALSO very 'cool', to blaze your own trail...  Python and Ruby both
do this
> very well.
>
> Why would ANYONE with any REAL TALENT want to copy imitators?

Actually both Python and Ruby very explicitly do not blaze their own trails
but are a combination of good ideas from a variety of other languages.  For
example, Ruby mixes ideas from Smalltalk, CLOS and Perl.  Smalltalk blazed a
new trail, but, unfortunately, was too radical to be very popular, and we
now have to make money by programming Java rather than Smalltalk. And
compared to Smalltalk, Java is only half a programming language.