Re: succinctness = power

[Paul Graham <address@hidden>]

> What if I defined a programming language that was twice as verbose but
> the programmers working in it were half as expensive (business majors
> rather than CS) and could crank out the same number of features in the
> same time (the right primitives for the problem domain). Would that high
> level language be less powerful?
> 

God, yes.  That's exactly what I mean by powerful.  Add in
Brooks' Observation (programming team productivity does not
scale linearly) and you get the thesis of Revenge of the Nerds: 
which is:

  use weak language -> always be behind -> lose in market.

And remember that is the best case.  Languages are not just
to implement in, but to think in.  So the more common situation
would be 

  use weak language -> competitors do things you never
  even imagined -> lose in market, rapidly.

>From what I hear, ITA's case is an instance of the latter.

--pg