Re: [dylan] The Future of Dylan: Why are we here?

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On 01.09.2014, at 09:22, Bruce Mitchener <[email protected]> =
wrote:
> What Makes Dylan Special?
> ------
>=20
> What makes Dylan special?

Dylan is LISP-like language with an ALGOL-like syntax. It=92s like a =
"clean version" of CL with a more mainstream syntax (which is somewhat a =
matter of taste, I prefer s-expressions since they are so simple and =
neat). Its type system with optional type annotations allows us to =
produce highly efficient native binaries while at the same time keeping =
the look-and-feel of a =93scripting language=94 like Python or Ruby. =
Besides, it=92s a very high-level language supporting a variety of =
awesome OO features like multiple dispatch, multiple inheritance and the =
concept of generic functions.

Dylan is like a constructive proof for the claim that you can have the =
cake and eat it too. :)

> What makes it great? What makes some of us want to keep working on it, =
well past any hope of entering the mainstream?

Since all mainstream programming languages adopted (some of the good =
parts of) functional programming it=92s worth keeping Dylan around to =
show what other neat features modern programming languages need (for =
instance, error handling).

> Some like the macros.

No, I hate them. I=92m not sure that you can come up with a nice macro =
system for languages that do not have s-expressions.

> Some like the condition system.

I really like the idea of a general condition system. It occurs to me =
that exceptions got a very bad reputation because of all the Java =
programmers using them to fake a condition system. That misuse results =
in languages like Go not having any error handling system at all and =
leaving you with =93if (error) { =85 }=94=85 Gosh, I thought that days =
were over!

> What brings you here?

I don=92t want to see a great language like Dylan die. While most people =
already think it is dead - if they have even heard of it - some =93killer=94=
 framework (for instance, a web framework) or something like that might =
get people=92s attention and let Dylan survive. That=92ll take a lot of =
effort and work, though.

=97 Rosario

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