[WikiEN-l] MediaWiki is getting a new programming language

[Aryeh Gregor]

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 10:23 PM, <wjhonson at aol.com> wrote:
>  The language chosen will hopefully be as ENGLISH-like as possible, even it that means it requires more typing.? The hyper-complex and excessively structured codes of most languages make it difficult for the vast majority of our contributors to even try to make a break into them.

Excessively English-like code is harder to work with, not easier.
Normally there are many ways to say something in English, and the
language has to arbitrarily pick one or two to support but not any
others.  That leads to considerable inconsistency.  From experience,
"easy-to-use" languages end up being harder to work with and maintain
on serious projects.  Look at the average programmer's attitude to
COBOL or SQL.  Such languages have been tried and are almost
universally agreed to be inferior by the people who actually have to
use them.

That's not to say you can't have reasonably understandable notation in
a good language.  I think Python strikes an excellent balance here.
But setting out to avoid "excessively structured" code is a bad idea.

Expecting a majority of our contributors to be able to contribute to
anything programming-related is unrealistic in any event.  A majority
of people who take introductory programming courses get an F -- and
that's even in the self-selected group that wants to learn how to
program.  It's not because the teachers or languages make it hard.
It's because most people just have a really difficult time
understanding how to program.

Happily, it's not necessary that the *average* user be able to
contribute to programming.  Only people who want to write flexible
templates will have to learn the syntax in any case.  The large
majority of users can stick to writing content, RC patrol, and a
million other things that are at least as important.