[Tfug] Language choices

[t takahashi]

there are a few things that still seem unclear, but i think you'll be
able to make a good choice.

can you tell us more about the domain and platform?

what's going to be using up memory?  code?  data?  initialization?
how much can be shared?

did you need something that is already ready for embedding?  if so,
into what other language?  c?  itself?

do you want to write all of the applications in the lang?  are you ok
with a single runtime or do you need to run each application from the
command line?  do you want to take advantage of shared libraries?

who uses the language more, you or people who are less technical?

did you need to be able to tweak the running application using the
language while the application is running?  do you want to use eval?
do you need secure execution of eval?

did you need to have an interpreter or are you flexible on that?  does
byte code appeal to you?

you're ok with obsolete languages, but would a language that will be
around in 10 years be better?  25 years?

you're ok with changing syntax of the language.  would a language that
supports easy syntax changes be important or is that unimportant?

how strict are your needs?  you like weak typing and dislike strongly
functional languages, but seem to be fascinated by ml.

is optional strong typing appealing?

gc: gc is already out there in the solar system; are you sure your
platform can't handle it?  if it can't, have you looked at severe and
special-purpose implementations of gc languages like scheme that at
the very least mitigate gc?  is memory more important than speed?

is a multi-paradigm language more appealing than a single paradigm
language, or do you just want the right kind of non-functional
language?

syntax: in addition to counting non-bracketing syntax, have you
written hello-world in each of the languages and counted the
bracketing expressions () {} []?  consider trying that as an exercise
to see if your existing opinions about bracketing expressions are
correct.

what happens if the compiler you choose goes out of business?  will
you maintain it yourself or can you switch to another compiler?


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