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My problem is that when designing my own language, I decided on GC, lambda syntax, async/await, weak typing, and... oops, it's basically just Javascript. Sure i

My problem is that when designing my own language, I decided on GC, lambda syntax, async/await, weak typing, and... oops, it's basically just Javascript. Sure it'd have tons of smaller differences vs JS, but it's too demotivating.

sa-code 3y ago
Js lacks progressive typing, that could be an interesting feat
- hot_gril 3y ago
  TS tried, and I didn't like the end result.
whstl 3y ago
It is still a great learning exercise IMO. Knowing which features are good/familiar to use, but difficult to implement, lets you explore other avenues, like news_to_me and the backslash for lambda [1]. For me, for example, I was gonna go with async/await in my toy language, but didn't like the implementation and decided to explore a monad-like direction. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38851863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38851863
- hot_gril 3y ago
  I can see this learning exercise applying to other things, only it takes a lot of time and commitment. So far I've also learned a lot on other projects that I was able to carry out more fully. But everyone has their thing.
somewhereoutth 3y ago
Javascript (for all its warts) does in many ways seem to be converging on a certainly local maximum for ergonomic language design. Perhaps this is because it is used so much in the 'wild west' of browser programming? Where things can move quickly, with polyfill for backwards compatibility (a modern marvel to my eyes, being able to use new language features on old platforms!)
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Yes, it's an example of not letting perfection get in the way of good. They made something accessible, and the finer details got worked out later.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    The other thing is, JS was designed with the web use case in mind. If I ever make a language, it'll be for some new use case that really needs one, perhaps some extension of SQL. And it'll prioritize ease of use in that case over "purity" or other principles.

sa-code 3y ago

Js lacks progressive typing, that could be an interesting feat

hot_gril 3y ago
TS tried, and I didn't like the end result.

whstl 3y ago

It is still a great learning exercise IMO. Knowing which features are good/familiar to use, but difficult to implement, lets you explore other avenues, like news_to_me and the backslash for lambda [1]. For me, for example, I was gonna go with async/await in my toy language, but didn't like the implementation and decided to explore a monad-like direction. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38851863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38851863

hot_gril 3y ago
I can see this learning exercise applying to other things, only it takes a lot of time and commitment. So far I've also learned a lot on other projects that I was able to carry out more fully. But everyone has their thing.

somewhereoutth 3y ago

Javascript (for all its warts) does in many ways seem to be converging on a certainly local maximum for ergonomic language design. Perhaps this is because it is used so much in the 'wild west' of browser programming? Where things can move quickly, with polyfill for backwards compatibility (a modern marvel to my eyes, being able to use new language features on old platforms!)

hot_gril 3y ago
Yes, it's an example of not letting perfection get in the way of good. They made something accessible, and the finer details got worked out later.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- hot_gril 3y ago
  The other thing is, JS was designed with the web use case in mind. If I ever make a language, it'll be for some new use case that really needs one, perhaps some extension of SQL. And it'll prioritize ease of use in that case over "purity" or other principles.