How Heraclitus would Design a Programming Language

CowboyRobot writes "Developer of Smalltalk Alan Kay has an interview on ACM Queue where he describes the history of computing and his approach to designing languages. Kay has an impressive resume (PARC, ARPAnet, Atari, Apple, Alan Turing Award winner) and has an endless supply of memorable quotes: 'Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term,' 'Once you have something that grows faster than education grows, you're always going to get a pop culture,' 'most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training,' 'All creativity is an extended form of a joke,' and 'nobody really knows how to design a good language.'"

Comments

Re:astounding hubris

[jeif1k]

Then go re-read his post and realize that it talked about how it made implementing compilers easier,

So was I. Go read up a little on Lisp and trying using it, then you'll see why.

Lisps awkward syntax (yes, yes, I know "it's not awkward, it's minmal!") will probably prevent it

Coming from someone who advocates Perl-related technologies, that is a ridiculous statement. Perl is a stellar example of how even the worst syntax can't keep a language from being used.

Then put down the Bill Joy doll.

The only thing I would be doing with a Bill Joy doll is put needles in it; Java sucks about as badly as Perl, although in completely different ways.