I think this is a pretty big myth that only applies to some of these language features.
If you admit that it applies to some language features, then it's not a myth by definition.
In Smalltalk, #doesNotUndertand: handlers and proxies and unfortunate "clever" use of message sends synthesized within custom primitives could result in outsized costs. (It's where method_missing comes from in Ruby.) It's not that you couldn't do powerful and useful things with those facilities. It's that large projects that were around for years tended to accumulate "clever" hacks from bright young developers with a little too much hubris. Often, those costs would be incurred years after the code was written.
Yes, it only applies to some language features. But it clearly does apply to some of them. I don't think it's easy to come by quantified costs for these. Doesn't this strike you as a problem for our field?
If you admit that it applies to some language features, then it's not a myth by definition.
In Smalltalk, #doesNotUndertand: handlers and proxies and unfortunate "clever" use of message sends synthesized within custom primitives could result in outsized costs. (It's where method_missing comes from in Ruby.) It's not that you couldn't do powerful and useful things with those facilities. It's that large projects that were around for years tended to accumulate "clever" hacks from bright young developers with a little too much hubris. Often, those costs would be incurred years after the code was written.
Yes, it only applies to some language features. But it clearly does apply to some of them. I don't think it's easy to come by quantified costs for these. Doesn't this strike you as a problem for our field?