Language Design Trade-offs

Language Design Trade-offs

When a Language Forge Gives You Too Many Handles: Picking Features Without Overload

Language design is like forging a tool. You want enough handles to let users grip the language firmly in any situation. But add too many, and the tool...

Language Design Trade-offs

When Your Code Forge Needs Both Hammer and Anvil: Expressiveness vs Restriction

So you are choosing a programming language for a new project—or maybe you are a group lead whose developers keep reinventing wheels when they should b...

Language Design Trade-offs

Choosing a Tool That Won't Snap: 3 Analogies for Static vs Dynamic Typing

You're two months into a project. The codebase has grown from a tidy script to a sprawling beast. New hires are stepping on each other's toes. That on...

Language Design Trade-offs

When Your Forge Won't Heat: Balancing Speed Against Safety in Language Design

Here is the problem: you want your language to run fast, really fast, but you also need it to not crash, leak memory, or let attackers in. Every desig...