this 2004 post by oliver steele remains one of the best things i've read on the topic: http://www.osteele.com/posts/2004/11/ides http://www.osteele.com/posts/20

this 2004 post by oliver steele remains one of the best things i've read on the topic: http://www.osteele.com/posts/2004/11/ides http://www.osteele.com/posts/2004/11/ides key quote: "In fact, the most powerful languages may initially have the least powerful tool support. The reason for this is that the language developer, like the language adopter, has to make a choice: whether to dedicate limited development resources towards language features, or towards tool support."