Should arrays get axed from future languages? In some ways the question is shocking. Arrays have been built into programming languages since ancient times. Arrays provide the foundation for many data structures and form the subject of an entire chapter...

I suspect that most people involved in the creation of programming languages like to think of themselves as (intelligent) designers. We have the Programming Language Design and Implementation conference, programming language designers, design documents...

In my previous posting I speculated that compile time type checkers as we know them today may fall by the wayside in favor of something that looks and feels a lot more like the dynamically typed languages. One of the statements I made, “ If you store...

In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in dynamically typed languages, with quite a lot of buzz about JavaScript, Python and Ruby. Could it be that one of these languages will rise to be the champion of the next decade? I would be a...

In previous posts, I’ve speculated that one of the necessary ingredients for the ascent of a new “champion” programming language is that the overall computing market should expand significantly. This seems to have been the case in the past, but will...