>This is, well, false. I don't think it can be called true or false that easily. Sure you can translate multiple languages into one AST representation (maybe e

>This is, well, false. I don't think it can be called true or false that easily. Sure you can translate multiple languages into one AST representation (maybe embellished to allow round-tripping). But is it still the same language? I would say no. But I would go further and say that not even a language specific AST is the same language. I think the idea that we can seperate programming languages from their surface syntax and still claim they are the same languages is misguided. Yes programming languages have semantics, but the user interface aspect is an inherent part of their identity because it is an inherent part of what it means for humans to use language. There is no such thing as syntactic sugar.