What is "Open Language"?

[Mark Waddingham]

On 2015-10-27 18:01, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>> Unfortunately, language and features are intertwined. You can't have
>> features without a way to access them, and a language with no features
>> is useless.
> 
> Maybe my tastes are too savage, but personally I'm fine with the
> existing syntax for player controls.

I'm glad for you. However, I think you know full well that was not my 
point...

Just to reiterate it - let's take an analogy with property ownership. 
Most people will at some point in their lives want to buy a house. 
Unfortunately (at least in the UK) this tends to require a hefty 
deposit. As money doesn't grow on trees, it is necessary to plan 
significantly ahead and save the money that you need for the deposit so 
that at some future date you can indeed buy a house.

Developing any complex software technology (and combined IDE / GUI 
Toolkits / Language systems are complex software - let's make no bones 
about that) is quite similar - if you substitute money for 'knowledge' 
and 'foundations'. If you see that the technology needs to really be at 
a particular point in the future, you need to 'cannibalise' your 
resources slightly along the way in order to make sure that at that 
point in the future you have the necessary knowledge and foundations on 
which to achieve the goal.

You seem to be of the point of view that the R&D necessary to ensure the 
future viability of technology is a 'nice-to-have' and 'unnecessary'. 
However, the reality is that it is something which *has* to be 
considered a critical part - lest you wish your technology to whither, 
shrink, and gradually fade away into the past.

As I said in another post - it is a difficult juggling act.

Warmest Regards,

Mark.

-- 
Mark Waddingham ~ mark at livecode.com ~ http://www.livecode.com/
LiveCode: Everyone can create apps