The definition of power is energy per unit of time. Similarly, the common usage of the word power as applied to programming languages means pretty much that: yo

The definition of power is energy per unit of time. Similarly, the common usage of the word power as applied to programming languages means pretty much that: you get more out of your work. In this analogy energy would correspond roughly to computability, which is not quite so useful a concept to measure. (Of course the analogy breaks down--energy can be indirectly measured, but computability is a yes-or-no question.) http://www.paulgraham.com/power.html http://www.paulgraham.com/power.html