>Saves my time both when I program and when I run the program. Compared to this >all other things are secondary.<
"Saving time" is one of the most important qualities of a programming language. A language can save time in many ways: - If it's easy to find with Google, if it's fast to download and install. If you have to pay for it you need waste some time. Sometimes installers help save time, but a zip file too can sometimes save time compared to an ugly installer. If you don't have to fill forms to download it it saves your time. Having an integrated editor, or having a IDE+compiler can save programming time. A good IDE can even turn a boring language like Java in an usable and quite useful one. Languages like C# are designed to almost require an IDE. - Having good online documentation and a good help can save lot of time. - A rich, easy to use and well debugged standard library can save a lot of time. Having a community of code (like Python modules you can find online to do almost everything, that are written in an uniform style that's easy to read and understand) can save a very large amount of time, even months. - If it's simple or similar to other languages, if its semantics is clear, this saves some time to learn it, sometimes many months. - A compact syntax saves a little programming time. A clear syntax improves readability, and this saves a lot of time when the program has to be debugged, modified, improved or just undertood. - A clear and high level semantics allows the programmer to think less about details, and this speeds up the invention or implementation of algorithms, and saves time (Python is among the best at this).. - If it helps avoid bugs or remove them it can save lot of programming time. - Some built-in features of the language can save some programming time. - If the compilation process is simple this saves time (see the Bud tool). If the language is designed to be compiled quickly (or to not require compilation) this saves time. - If programs run quickly it saves some time. A good language has to try to save time in all those ways and more. Bye, bearophile
