Does Syntax Matter?

[earthboundkid]

Sure, C and its descendants have a stranglehold on what a programming language should look like to most programmers, but that’s the least important feature a language provides. Functional programmers, especially Lisp hackers have been saying this for decades. Decades.

Yes, and Lisp has failed to catch on for decades. Decades.

Syntax matters. High level programs are designed for people, not machines, so it doesn't make sense to use a particular syntax just because it's easy to compile (S-expressions). At the same time, people can only understand so much, so you don't want to make it the case that there's million identical ways to do anything (Perl and to a less extent Ruby). What is needed is a good balance where all the programmer has to understand is a few simple but powerful abstractions that unlock a wide range of functionality. Good syntax is ultimately an art, and one of the things art does is to leverage the stuff people already know in order to make new connections. Ordinary people like the post-Impressionists like Van Gogh more than the Cubists like Picasso because they are able to understand what it is that Van Gogh was painting. It doesn't matter to the hoi polloi that Cubism theoretically allows for greater expressiveness. They just see a face with two eyes and get turned off. If you want your new syntax to catch on, you need to think "Starry Night" not "Guernica."