Louis Pilfold, the creator of the Gleam programming language, explores the developer-friendly innovations that Gleam brings to Erlang's BEAM platform. He discusses the importance of simplicity and resilience in programming languages while emphasizing proper error handling. The conversation delves into Gleam's community engagement and the balance between complexity and usability. Louis also highlights the financial sustainability challenges of open source projects and the governance models affecting language evolution, wrapping up with insights into the supportive Gleam community.
Gleam is designed to be user-friendly while leveraging Erlang's BEAM for reliability and concurrency in distributed systems.
The language combines familiar syntax from languages like C and JavaScript, aiming to attract developers transitioning from other languages.
Community engagement and user feedback are essential for Gleam's development, driving continuous improvement and ensuring it meets user needs.
Deep dives
Motivations for Creating New Programming Languages
The creation of new programming languages is driven by various motivations, which include the desire for innovation, personal expression, and addressing specific needs in the tech industry. Some developers look to experiment and research future programming paradigms, while others may be inspired to fuse concepts from existing languages that they admire, like combining Python's programming model with C's syntax. Additionally, new languages often emerge to fill market gaps, such as JavaScript, which was specifically designed to meet the needs of web browsers. Understanding these driving forces sheds light on the ever-evolving landscape of programming languages.
Introducing Gleam: A New Programming Language
Gleam is a relatively new programming language developed by Louis Pilfold, combining desirable features from existing languages while maintaining a focus on simplicity and ease of use. It aims to create a cohesive and accessible environment for programmers, with a familiar syntax akin to C and JavaScript that piques interest among developers transitioning from other languages. Drawing inspiration mainly from functional languages, including Elm and Go, Gleam revolves around functions and values, encouraging users to adopt a streamlined approach to programming. Pilfold's vision was to create a language that harmonizes the strengths of established languages without the burden of unnecessary complexity.
Gleam's Unique Features and Underlying Technology
One of Gleam's standout features is its ability to run on the Erlang Virtual Machine (BEAM), which is renowned for its reliability and concurrency capabilities. This foundation allows Gleam to leverage Erlang's robust support for fault-tolerance and distributed systems, making it an excellent choice for developers focused on building reliable applications. Unlike many functional programming languages, Gleam distinguishes itself by adopting simpler syntax and design principles, which can be a more approachable alternative for those hesitant about the complexity of Erlang. As a result, Gleam provides a solid platform that merges the reliability expected in production environments with user-friendly programming practices.
The Journey from Concept to Production
Transitioning from a programming language idea to a fully functional product can be an arduous process marked by persistence and determination. Wilful learning and exploration of various features play a crucial role in transforming vision into reality, as demonstrated by Pilfold’s approach when building Gleam. Community engagement has proven beneficial, as feedback and suggestions from users help refine the language, driving continuous improvement and practical application. Thus, the development of Gleam embodies the importance of iterating on ideas, embracing user needs, and strategically balancing innovation and accessibility.
The Future Outlook for Gleam
Louis Pilfold envisions a bright future for Gleam as the language continues to gain traction within the programming community. With its growing popularity and a user base that finds value in its design, the aim is to gather feedback from real-world applications to further enhance the language’s features before reaching a version 1 milestone. Such feedback will inform necessary changes and optimizations, ensuring that Gleam remains relevant and user-friendly in a continuously evolving tech landscape. Pilfold's dedication to balancing development with community input fosters an encouraging environment for collaboration, ultimately aiming to secure playing a significant role within the programming community.
Louis Pilfold joins us to talk about Gleam, a new language that runs on Erlang's BEAM. In creating Gleam, Louis has tried to bring a new level of developer-friendliness to Erlang's famously fault-tolerant platform.
If you're interested in building reliable distributed systems, exploring functional programming, learning new languages or finding out what it takes to design your own language, Louis is here to talk us through it all.
