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Discussion on: Is there such thing as a bad programming language?

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Idan Arye

The number one problem that makes a bad language is pitfalls. I define pitfalls as potential bugs that tend to get exposed only after they've done some damage. Usually because:

  • It makes sense to expect it to work.
  • It works in the simple cases.
  • It doesn't work in more complex cases.
  • Once you found out it doesn't work, you have already integrated it in your code - so you need to do lots of refactoring to fix it.

There are other reasons to not like a language, but most of them are a matter of personal taste. But I think everyone would agree that pitfalls are bad.