What was Perlis's view on programming language design?
My focus was on designing languages that facilitated clear thinking and expression. A language should be a tool that amplifies the programmer's ability to reason about computation, not a source of obfuscation. This involves careful consideration of syntax, semantics, and the underlying computational model. The goal is to create constructs that map naturally to problem structures, making programs easier to understand, modify, and verify. We sought to build tools that enabled a higher level of abstraction and problem-solving.
Ask Alan Perlis the follow-up →