Unofficial wish list status.(Jul 2008)

[Yigal Chripun]

superdan wrote:

> nemerle is a stillborn, you can quote me on that. since 1970
> languages tried to make configurable syntax palatable. never works.
> ever heard of imp72? that's telling. probably the nemerle folks also
> didn't know. and they will pay for it.
> 
> why is it the case that configurable syntax never works? no idea. if
> i had to venture an opinion i'd say configurable syntax does not come
> natural to humans. natural language has fixed syntax.


nemerle does not provide configurable syntax but rather a core language
that you can add extensions to (with some restrictions, I think).

It takes a long time for people to switch languages, since it also
requires changing a mindset. thus, it takes generations of programmers
till new concepts become generally used. languages developed in the 60's
had concepts like closures but only now it enters mainstream with c#
delegates & events/D delegates/Java is in the process of adding them as
well.

last point: the comparison with natural languages is wrong - a human
need to know only one language to communicate since natural languages
are much more powerful. they allow concepts like irony, metaphors, etc,
which are not possible in a formal language.
I haven't seen a compiler that understands irony yet, but if you plan to
develop one than do share, this would be interesting to try out.