Re: succinctness = power

["Guillaume Marceau" <address@hidden>]

>
>>   Python's goal is regularity and readability, not
>>   succinctness.
>
> This topic of succinctness is something we (and language
> designers generally) have tiptoed around.  I think it is
> an important one.  The more I think about it, succinctness
> seems to be what languages are *for*.  If so, to say that
> the aim of a language is not to be succinct seems almost
> to say that its aim is not to be a good programming
> language.

The tension between regularity and succinctness is, in fact, also present in
human languages.

A wordy and verbose prose is both boring and tedious. Inversly, using the
one very best word everytime might do for a short text, but only at the risk
of sending half of the readers to their dictionnary.

Being able to consistently strike the right balance is the mark of virtuous
writer.


I claim programming languages should allow coders to demonstrate their
virtuosity and thus, my vote is against b&d-based langages. Similarly, if
english did not allow to introduce new words and new structures, it would be
called Esperanto, and nobody would use it.