in your opinion, what is the most important feature of a programming language? For me it’s getting paid for using it.

How C like it is in terms of edgecases. Because I dont want to relearn every fucking minute detail of a language. Looking at you JS!

"As simple as possible but no more simple" as they say.

not-being-javascript-tier-garbage.

Being able to undo almost everything you fuck up IF you don't do bat-shit crazy stuff. Even better if it's in a container you can simply redeploy!
Main hold-back on fixing/doing stuff in the house is me getting anxious I fuck my wall up or hit some pipe or smth...

Getting paid for using it is not a feature of a language. It’s a feature of society.

IMO, the most important feature of a language depends on what you use it for.

If it’s being used for scripting, than it should have great error messages for debugging. Nothing more frustrating than if it doesn’t do what you want and it doesn’t tell you why.

If it’s being used for actual projects with a lot of code, then I would say that a well thought out and well designed type system is very important. There are more things which are important but you asked for one :)

In one word? MACROS.

Alright, don't kill me. I can explain!

Subdividing code into small, single-purpose functions tends to be a good way to both structure the code for readability and reuse. Basic stuff.

The problem is certain patterns can't be abstracted away behind a function, like say, a series of loops or conditionals that are always the same, but have a different body.

You can solve this with a function that takes function pointers as arguments. Alright, but that's fucking murder, because now you have three calls instead of one: call the function that uses the template, then call the template with function pointers as arguments, and then an indirect call to one of those pointers inside the template.

You should inline all of this instead, and a good compiler would try if all the pointers are const. Or you could use a fucking macro.

Do they point at your feet? Yes. Can they be badly implemented? Absolutely. But are they useful? Fuck yes. Gimmie my MACROS.

Almost any language will fit that.
For me I’d say that as long as it has a decent standard library, the syntax doesn’t make me puke, and its error messages are clear enough I will like it. Being supported so it’s actually usable as well.

@ars1
> Almost any language will fit that.

You know that kiki is referring yo JS. And it’s the number 1 coping mechanism for JS users.
"JS is a good language because I get paid for using it"

@Liebranca i agree, that macros are a nice to have.

But i have to mention, that depending on what you're working with, function pointers, closures or lambda functions can be bad, or have no inpact. Ideally a language just inlines your closure or whatever you throw at it, like rust does.

But that being said, that pretty much depends on the language and is absolutely not a universal thing.

also coming back to topic: if getting paid is the main criteria, you won't believe how much you'd love COBOL or ABAP.

@thebiochemic it is very hard to find a COBOL gig nowadays. And if your employer treats you badly, you don't have that many options. ABAP has high entry barrier — you have to go through hell with SAP R/3 and its forms before you get to write a single line in ABAP. At that rate any language will pay you, except for maybe zig or idris

@kiki i guess, but as far as i read it, that wasn't your criteria 😂

I might be biased, but i find getting into either COBOL and ABAP equally annoying.

S/4HANA, UI5/Fiori and BTP is the shit in the SAP world nowadays. R/3 is slowly getting replaced, there are tons of migration projects out there, you won't be struggling to find well paid work.

@jestdotty Will any of us will live to see it?