April 2006 - Posts

• Motivating examples - load-time properties, dynamic class loading, and optimization

  I think it is probably a good time to give a couple of motivating examples for my idea of a rich intermediate language. Both examples ultimately have to do with optimization, and are therefore more matters of performance than correctness. However, I believe Read More... Posted Wednesday, April 26, 2006 8:45 PM by hartwil | 1 Comments

• The grand vision

  I'm going to start with a top-down view of what this language should be. A good place to start would be the distinction between managed and unmanaged platforms and languages. Most research on the matter has shown that managed code does a lot to reduce Read More... Posted Friday, April 21, 2006 9:31 PM by hartwil | 0 Comments

• Why do features in special purpose languages have a place in a general-purpose language at all?

  This is a tricky question. There are probably plenty of features in special purpose languages that don't belong in a general purpose language. However, there are two reasons that we should consider these features: Some special purpose languages (such Read More... Posted Friday, April 21, 2006 2:01 AM by hartwil | 0 Comments

• How can you do better than the many new and struggling languages out there?

  Briefly, I don't know that I can. But even if what comes out of this isn't a language that will be widely adopted, I still think this is a worthwhile exercise, because: Features I try out that turn out to be good may find their way into other existing Read More... Posted Friday, April 21, 2006 1:54 AM by hartwil | 0 Comments

• What's wrong with the languages we already have?

  This is one of those standard questions that everyone who has worked on designing a language has come up against. Instead of getting into specifics, since I can't say for certain at this point what will be better about this new language, let me make the Read More... Posted Friday, April 21, 2006 12:47 AM by hartwil | 1 Comments

• Motivation

  I have been interested in language design for a few years now. I guess my fascination started in college when I was exposed to a large number of diverse langauges as part of my coursework. This only grew as I explored the many languages out there that, Read More... Posted Thursday, April 20, 2006 10:02 PM by hartwil | 0 Comments