[OT] Is the D(n) PL discovery or invention?

[Kagamin]

Justin Johansson Wrote:

> This question is a play on the eternal question
> "is mathematics discovery or invention?"

Discovery, of course, because it's fully deductive. There's only one possible consequence on axioms - and it just gets discovered. There's a little invention, though, when you formulate axioms.

> My discussion starter is now about programming languages (PLs)
> and their relation to discovery or invention.

PL is a pure invention. There's nothing real that corresponds to PL and that could be discovered as a PL. The designer is only restricted by intention to make a working instrument. Everything else is at his free will. There's only one mathematics and there're many different arts.

> Is there a gray-scale (or a continuum) between discovery and invention?

For example, physics is about 50/50.

> In the context of the D PL, where does D(version n) lie in the continuum
> between discovery and invention.

There're some things to discover about PL - bug-prone features. But there's a trade-off between performance and fixes for those features, so they affect PL only slightly.