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I think this hits close to home. I wish creators of new programming languages would reuse syntax of existing programming languages (ideally the ones in the mainstream). Or at least think about it.

Also think if you even need a new language. It seems that too many new languages have features that can be handled by functions or macros in existing languages.

Some languages like Forth, Lisp or Haskell are very powerful, have strong metaprogramming facilities, and most likely can already do anything that would need a new language and new syntax.

Think about it - if you avoid creating another syntax variation, and work with an existing syntax (or better existing language), your chances of somebody actually using your efforts will vastly increase.




After following Make A Lisp [1] and seeing how easy it is to parse and get all that power, other syntax just seems sadistic for both the language developer and the users.

[1] https://github.com/kanaka/mal


Your comment reminded me of this interesting read, https://hillelwayne.com/post/influential-dead-languages/


Conversely, I’ve found it useful that Erlang has very different syntax than most languages, because it helps me think about the distinct semantics it offers.

Plus it’s very concise, which spoiled me to the point where I find it difficult to look at Elixir.




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