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The perfect /prog/lang

Name: Anonymous 2015-04-23 15:00

I'm trying to determine the common traits of /prog/-approved languages:
lets start
1.GC is shit.
Does everyone agree? Are incremental GC's or automatic refcounting also shit?

Name: Anonymous 2015-04-23 15:48

The perfect language would be as safe as Ada, as expressive as Lisp, as clear as Python and as fast as C.
What exact features would make it perfect?

It would be small in design and fast to parse.
Elegant minimal languages are the way to start. Libraries should pick up the parts which are expressible, and if desired migrated to the core language. Syntax rules should be expressible in EBNF succinctly.

It would not force to do things One True Way.
One True Way often excludes optimizations, tweaks and creates a sense of limits in the design. Petty restrictions and limits would ruin any language:initial impressions matter. There should be ways to create many correct variations of same code.

It should catch most errors at compile time. The Ada language strength is of course annoying one, but the language should have the safety before runtime. The key is not overdo the safety parts, forcing the programmer to write around many restrictions.

It should be approachable to beginners.
Syntax should be friendly and easily parsed, language syntax determines readability and usability(code maintenance):the secret to Pythons success is the simple syntax.

It should easily inter-operate with mainstream languages and OSes.FFI and OS interface should be done before libraries.
Python other strength is the vast number of libraries and the easy interface to everything.

It needs to have an optimizing compiler and support for low-level code and native machine types. The power of C is the flexibility for unlimited optimization(even without inline assembler and intrinsics). The language should have both compiler-side and code-side optimization possibilities.

It needs syntax macros. Metaprogramming with macros is the key power of Lisp family.

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