I consider myself a language enthusiast, but I think that 'merit' in PL design is extremely poorly understood on a practical level. This idea that these languag

I consider myself a language enthusiast, but I think that 'merit' in PL design is extremely poorly understood on a practical level. This idea that these languages became popular in spite of their apparent lack of merit is far too easy a way to stop thinking about what merits they might have that the oft-touted 'better languages' lack that drive people to use them. And this thought-stopper has to rest on an assumption that programmers don't want things to be easier/better/etc., which strikes me as unlikely.