Comment by ModernMech | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ModernMech | Hacker News Reader

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This post has always irked me. It reads as straight up gate-keeping, especially when what follows these questions are a litany of negativity ("go home" "no one cares" "you are kidding yourself" and "you are wrong."). This is especially frustrating as the author later admits he himself cannot answer these questions honestly and yet persists in designing his own language. He certainly hasn't "gone home" so why should anyone else?

Here's my advice: Want to invent a new programming language? Dive in. It doesn't matter if someone invented it before. It doesn't matter if you can't formalize it in mathematical notation at the outset (or ever). It doesn't matter if your language could be implemented in a library of another language. It doesn't matter if you can't articulate the precise benefits of your language. It doesn't matter if there are any benefits at all. It doesn't matter if you can't answer a single of the above questions. Have at it. You are guaranteed to a) learn a lot, and b) have fun. Maybe you do something completely derivative and that's fine. Maybe no one will appreciate what you do and that's fine. Maybe it will go nowhere, maybe it will never compile. Maybe you will be the only user. Maybe some guy on the internet will tell you to go home and no one cares. So what?

I can see both points of view. Of course, if you enjoy making a new language do it, lots will be learned and you can always remember back to that language you made.

On the other hand, if your intention is to make a new language that does something distinctly different and for some purposes better, then answering those questions will save you from spending time on things that don't deeply matter. Now if we're not in a circle of language design researchers, things that matter can be syntax.

I can see what's being attempted and I appreciate it. I myself have wanted a kind of 'referential transparency' when it comes to lazy values in an otherwise strict language. Or in this case async ones executing concurrently. You can use the result of the expression without the ceremony. I'm not particular to the syntax and would have liked to see it added to a popular language. Making a whole new language is scratching an itch, which is also great for what it is.

I wish I had been given this advice many years ago, but I got some negativity that trigger a cascade of depression ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=226480 ). I was very young, and I didn't ask for feedback. It was not great waking up to a HN post. In a way, I was not prepared to accept honest criticism for something that I was building.

Granted, it was a bad idea to build a non-tech business on a new programming language in a region which could not hire people to fix the language, so it was the right call to give into the depression and move away from my language. However, it probably took me a decade to try again recently.

When I reflect on history and how things could have unfolded, I realize I was onto something and I was at the wrong place to exploit my ideas. As an example, if I had persisted, then my language could have been what Hack & HHVM is today. However, I was in the mid-west operating on my own.

This time, I'm swinging hard with my new language, and I hope to redefine a portion of the computing landscape. Or, at least, improve it within my myopic universe. I haven't published much, but I have a novel language at the moment which is enabling me to do things that are hard to imagine.

I don't see it that way. There are thousands of languages now. It's wise counsel to people (like me!) who hope to introduce a language that actually gets used. If you can't "check those boxes" on this handy checklist, well, maybe you gotta spend more time at the drawing board.

For those of us that are going to do it anyway, with no expectation of becoming popular and widely-used, I would treat it a stimulating challenge rather than a slammed door.

I think there's something to be said for going through the exercise even if the answer to every question actually does indicate the language shouldn't be written. What happens when you come up with an idea that actually does have a place? It's better to start with the background of having done it before than try to create a dream project with no experience in making some toys.

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