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You were 42 when you started working on D and I guess it is the first language you designed? Talk about why you started working on it so late...

What kind of question is that? Anders Hejlsberg was what, 39 when he started working on C# and 52 with Typescript? It's the same as with screenplays. You start writing when you have experience.

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It struck me as odd, too, but then I realized I didn't know the cultural background of interviewer or interviewee and maybe it was a welcome, completely normal question. It's useful to keep your own dispositions in mind when analyzing someone else's conversation.

Not valid, since question comes preloaded with an assumption language designers start a lot earlier ("so late").

That's a fair point. I hadn't looked at it that way.

maybe. perhaps they're referring to his long career and curious about what motivated him at that point to pursue the project versus times previous.

When you put it that way, could be that as well. Bad interviewer is bad, I guess.

I think serial PL designer Wouter van Oortmerssen started creating languages in his teens...

Programming Amiga E by Wouter van Oortmerssen was such a joy compared to C back in the day.

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