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Comment by the_hoser | Hacker News Reader

Because it hasn't been released, and it likely never will be. It's impossible to criticize a programming language without actually using it, so any discussion of its merits is moot without an actual release.

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How long do you think it takes to make a new language?

How long do you think it takes to release a working prototype when you already have one?

But he doesn't want to release a "working prototype", he wants to release a finished, polished language.

The only kind of programming language that is ever "finished" are ones that nobody uses.

C was largely "finished" when it came out–future additions have not added much. And by "finished" I don't mean "never changes", I mean "finished enough for a 1.0".

Maybe he has different standards than you? I assume Jai will be similar to his games as far as attention to details goes. I would describe his games as having a maniacal attention to detail.

Maniacal attention to detail in products is very rare those days. As a born perfectionist I wish I could afford it for myself, honestly.

Then maybe he should handle Jai like he handles his games. Don't talk about it until it's almost ready to go.

...Except that he did talk about all of his games almost from the get go? He showed earliest prototypes of Braid and Witness publicaly when the games were just blocky protypes, in the latter case good 7 years before the game came out. I don't know where you got this idea from, the way he is handling the development of the language seems to be pretty much an extension of how he develops his games.

It's his hobby/passion project, I really don't understand your objection.

You seem to have a problem with the fact he criticises other languages. Would you also treat someone who isn't currently designing a language with the same harshness if they also criticised a language the way Jonathan Blow does?

Why do you care?

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