I think everything you've mentioned is on point! That said, I would like to clarify exactly what I was imagining when Ben used the phrase: "there should be only one way of doing a thing."
In language design, we should try to avoid bloat whenever possible. When I think of bloated languages, I think of languages that have been around for awhile that never really deprecated anything (C++ comes to mind). As a result, these bloated languages have a certain amount of complexity that has to be reigned in by people—instead of by the languages. Setting up standards and whatnot take time, and it would be nice if the languages themselves stuck to a niche.
To your point, I wouldn't advocate for telling people in general that there's only one way to do things. That's textbook elitism. But from a language design standpoint, I think it makes sense to limit language complexity.
Lead Developer, business owner, US Army veteran. I build things for the web. My website is a bunch of HTML pages that didn't need a framework. Yours can be too!
Absolutely! I actually think we're in complete agreement and just approaching it from two different angles. I just got inspired to throw my angle in there to keep discussion alive/offer a different perspective.
It started as a standalone post, but I saw you'd touched on it and figured it was better as a reply/part of a discussion than a standalone haha!
I think everything you've mentioned is on point! That said, I would like to clarify exactly what I was imagining when Ben used the phrase: "there should be only one way of doing a thing."
In language design, we should try to avoid bloat whenever possible. When I think of bloated languages, I think of languages that have been around for awhile that never really deprecated anything (C++ comes to mind). As a result, these bloated languages have a certain amount of complexity that has to be reigned in by people—instead of by the languages. Setting up standards and whatnot take time, and it would be nice if the languages themselves stuck to a niche.
To your point, I wouldn't advocate for telling people in general that there's only one way to do things. That's textbook elitism. But from a language design standpoint, I think it makes sense to limit language complexity.
Absolutely! I actually think we're in complete agreement and just approaching it from two different angles. I just got inspired to throw my angle in there to keep discussion alive/offer a different perspective.
It started as a standalone post, but I saw you'd touched on it and figured it was better as a reply/part of a discussion than a standalone haha!
Great stuff, Scott! Happy to chat with you.