So, You Want To Write Your Own Programming Language?

[Chris]

On Thursday, 23 January 2014 at 20:11:15 UTC, Nick Sabalausky 
wrote:
> On 1/23/2014 5:24 AM, Chris wrote:
>> I find it extremely interesting how the human
>> mind (not just language) is reflected in programming languages.
>>
>
> They way I usually see it is that the human mind HAS to be 
> reflected in programming languages as that's the whole point.
>
> We already knew how to program computers back with manual 
> switches, Altair-style. Every programming tool since then (and 
> *including* Altair-style) has fundamentally been about bridging 
> the gap between the way humans work and the way computers work. 
> That naturally requires that the tool (ex. programming 
> language) reflects a lot about the core nature of both humans 
> and computers, because the language's whole job is to interface 
> with both.

Yes, there is no other way. Humans cannot create anything that is 
not based on the human mind. However, it is interesting to see 
how it is done. Man against machine (or rather man in machine), 
how to make a computer work the way we work. Even the simplest 
things like

x++;
x += 5;

are fascinating. It is already reflected in the development of 
writing systems, long before there was any talk of computers. And 
it is also interesting to see how different human ways of 
tackling problems are enshrined in programming languages. E.g. 
the ever patronizing Python vs C style (";"). One could write a 
book about it.