The design of usable programming languages

Abstract

A methodology for the design of programming languages is set forth. The principal objective of this approach is the development of languages that are easy to use; it is argued that conventional language designs do not satisfactorily achieve this goal. The basic principles of the proposed approach are restriction and discipline: by appropriately limiting the programmer's freedom of choice, the number of decisions he must make can be reduced. In particular, it is argued that languages should be designed for individual problem areas, and that each language should be built around a style of problem solving, an algorithmic structure appropriate to its application domain. Principles of declarative and data-oriented programming, which avoid a processor-oriented view of computation, are also set forth.