I've found that a set of features is not all that important, and in fact leads to languages like C++ or Java that are actively unpleasant. Better to have some

I've found that a set of features is not all that important, and in fact leads to languages like C++ or Java that are actively unpleasant. Better to have some guiding principles or philosophy, and arrive at C, Lisp, APL, Lua, SML or Haskell.