Re: Recent references on language design?

> I'm interested in understanding the ingredients that are important in
> designing a language that will be successful.


Looking at the mainstream computer languages widely used today, I
would imagine one of the most important reasons they are "successful"
is that they more than casually resemble a predecessor language like
C. Again, talking mainstream languages, I would even argue that since
the 55 years Fortran has been around, we have made very little
progress in computer language design - the notable milestones would be
structured programming (if - then - else) and object orientation.


Although the GO language's goroutines are a nice idea and addition,
once again, the rest of the language looks, unsurprisingly and perhaps
by design, a lot like C. I think we have a serious computer language
crisis - the languages themselves which command a good deal and
growing amount of mind share, i.e. Java and C#, are keeping us in a
computing stone age.


The market shows its inertia by choosing the familiar.


I would suggest the book "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell for an insight
into how some humans might accept or reject an idea. This was a very
successful book a few years ago and should be still very easy to find.

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