While I am also concerned with the problem of ever-expanding
languages because the larger they grow, the harder they are to
learn, and the harder it is to read someone else's code which
uses unfamiliar features, there are other issues that are
equally important.
I find the most unappreciated feature of a language is the list
of things it can't do. For a bit of background, my first program
was written in machine language, and after struggling with it,
the instructor introduced the class to a wonderful tool:
assembler language. Sufficient to say, I know about languages
with built in footguns.
The advantage of having a language that doesn't allow certain
things is that you don't have to worry about them when you are
debugging or reviewing a program. Memory safety is high on the
list of useful features which JS has. Another very valuable
feature is the ability to limit what a piece of code can do
before you invoke it. In the JS arena, this kind of limitation
allows web sites which give their users security assurances to
run arbitrary JS provided by advertisers. ES2015 has a number of
features to support this usage, but because of the need to not
"break the web", they are a bit delicate to use.
It would be good to include a list of the things you can't do in
the language specification so failures in this area are clearly
bugs in either the implementation or the specification. I would
suggest for JS that this list include the things required for
confining a piece of JS code running within a larger
environment, like a web page to keep it from doing all the
things the web page can do.
Cheers - Bill
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Bill Frantz | Ham radio contesting is a | Periwinkle
(408)356-8506 | contact sport. | 16345
Englewood Ave
www.pwpconsult.com | - Ken Widelitz K6LA / VY2TT | Los Gatos,
CA 95032
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