PL folks should go subscribe to ! It's focused on comparing design choices from a wide variety of different programming languages, with a particular focus on ergonomics and usability. It's really valuable stuff!
Conversation
For years, I've personally considered one of my main interests in programming languages to be ergonomics. But I haven't used the term (at least not often?) on my channel. I guess my interest stands out, anyway. And thanks for the kind words!
1
2
No worries! It definitely shines through! You treat this stuff more like appreciating architecture and industrial design, rather than attempting to force it into a science. And I think that's important.
Leo White has some relevant thoughts on this here: signalsandthreads.com/language-desig.
1
1
Like I think there's definitely value in looking at usability studies and theoretical stuff (maybe ideas for future videos there?), but there's also plenty of room for appreciating programming languages from a perspective of aesthetics and beauty.
1
2
In fact, more than plenty of room - I think there's a significant lack of people doing this in a public setting that reaches a wide audience. And that makes your stuff even more valuable!
1
2
Yeah, since I'm not a PL researcher at all, that probably affects my perspective, but I want to study it more so I know that world, too. I've done research but not in PL. And of course, there was this recent editorial: blog.sigplan.org/2020/09/29/pl-
1
1
And I'd really like sometime to study up on notation and make a video or 3 to help me and others better make sense of PL academic papers. Notation like this and such: siek.blogspot.com/2012/07/crash-
2
2
Replying to
Yeah, this page is pretty handy!
I've also found the tutorial papers and books that translate the formal descriptions an implementation really helpful. It really helped me understand the correspondence between the two.