"scenario where it takes 2x as long to write a line in language X, and that line does twice as much, it is probably at least twice as complex as the 'more verbo

"scenario where it takes 2x as long to write a line in language X, and that line does twice as much, it is probably at least twice as complex as the 'more verbose' language... " I think this is debatable. After all - a function call compresses multiple lines into one as well.. And you want programmers to factor the repeated code into function calls. The "dynamic redefinition of the language" is the same thing except at a different level. The problem is not with the lines of code per se - it is whether the semantic compression is worth the learning curve, and the "surprise" factor. Think C++ templates, for example, with a "+" operator that would do something "non-intuitive". The "non-intuitiveness" may vary - and it is a fine art to not cross the line. FWIW, I've done the exercice in Lua, ~ 1 hour and 107 lines (and for some reason a different order of outputs, which I did not want to debug since I went for a nice dinner with a couple of beers earlier today) - https://gist.github.com/752460 https://gist.github.com/752460