4 ms·

> it's not really due to lack of language features, it's due to having chosen not to use them from the start That itself is a language deficiency, though, righ

• dahart 6y ago
  Yeah, I suppose you're right it can be viewed as a language deficiency if the right thing to do is difficult and the wrong thing is easy & tempting. I guess I take responsibility for it though because I'm not sure I can imagine a time when there won't be a tradeoff to be made. Good engineering always has, and I'm guessing always will...? There definitely is something important in the ideas Knuth is expressing abstractly here, and thank you for the link. Perhaps this idea really is percolating slowly to the compiler writers, because at work we have conversations about how to talk to the compiler so that it can better optimize.
  • cxr 6y ago
    > if the right thing to do is difficult and the wrong thing is easy & tempting That's not what I meant by linking to the Knuth piece. The deficiency lies in the language that doesn't allow you to start off doing the easy thing and then make it "right" through further dialogue, keeping the starting point easy. I'm pretty sure this is the real intent behind Knuth's focus on literate programming.