What Makes for Good Design in a Programming Language?

Today we're discussing the so-called "incommensurability" paper: The Structure of a Programming Language Revolution by Richard P. Gabriel.

In the pre-show, Jimmy demands that Ivan come right out and explain himself, and so he does, to a certain extent at least. In the post-show, Jimmy draws such a thick line between programming and philosophy that it wouldn't even look out of place on Groucho Marx's face.

Next episode, we will be covering the Worse is Better family of thought products, so take 15 minutes to read these three absolute bangers if you'd like to be ahead of the game:

• The Rise of Worse is Better by Richard P. Gabriel
• Worse is Better is Worse, definitely not by Richard P. Gabriel
• Is Worse Really Better? by Richard P. Gabriel

Links

• Phlogiston Theory
• Phlogiston the excellent chiptune musician.
• Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life, by Conor Oberst.
• Not to be confused with Conal Elliott, who introduced the original meaning of functional reactive programming in his work on Fran.
• Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
• Pilot: A Step Toward Man-Computer Symbiosis
• Jimmy's talk Paradigms Without Progress: Kuhnian Reflections on Programming Practice
• There's some sporadic discussion of Philip Wadler (who Ivan playfully calls "Phil"), specifically his claim that programming languages have some bits that are invented and some bits that are discovered. While we're here, make sure you've seen the best 15 seconds in Strange Loop history.
• Peter Naur's Programming as Theory Building

Sponsors

CarrotGrid — They don't have a web presence (weird, hey?) but they're working on an interesting problem at the intersection of data, so listen to the short ad in the episode to find out more.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital — Instead of running our usual sponsors today, we'd like to direct your attention to this humanitarian cause. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and our friends (can we call them that?) at Relay.fm are running a pledge drive. If you have any spare coins in your couch cushions, or a few million left over from your last exit, you'd be hard pressed to find a more deserving way to invest them. Donate here.

Show notes for this episode can be found at futureofcoding.org/episodes/58

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