“We should pay attention to the way that a new language can redefine the limits of computing”

I’ve always been a bit of a language nut. So much so that I don’t see the sharp distinctions drawn between human languages and computer languages: I’ve always thought that the similarities outweighed the differences, since it’s the same tool – the human brain – that goes to work on C++ or Ruby on Rails as works on Swiss German, Aleut or Geordie.

I realise that humans don’t compile their speeches into binary objects, but that’s not the kind of distinction I think is worth pausing over. Instead, we should pay attention to the way that a new language can redefine the limits of computing or of a problem. Thinking back to the 1980s, I recall that nasty uncomfortable feeling I had around anything to do with C or C++, which seemed to have a number of features designed to keep things “reassuringly difficult” and therefore sustain a rich and in-demand contract programming sector.

At that time, I was a Pascal and Modula-2 person. To give you some idea of the era, this was when the coolest business computer was an Apricot Qi, with