Re: succinctness = power

[Dan Weinreb <address@hidden>]

   Date: 28 May 2002 14:10:08 -0000
   From: Paul Graham <pg@archub.org>

   Well, if the power of a language as a tool is reflected in
   something other than succinctness, tell us what.  The reason
   I wrote that essay is to propose succinctness = power as
   kind of the first step in a newton's method-like approach
   to figure out what we should be aiming for in language design.
   To refine the estimate we need counterexamples, if there
   are any.

This may be veering towards being an argument about the meaning of
words rather than about programming languages.  I agree that there is
a certain sense of "power" in which "succinctness = power" makes
sense, but if we stipulate that, we are then left asking to what
extent "power", in this sense, is "what we should be aiming for in
language design", and whether it is an overriding goal.