Working Group on Language Design

This is the home page of the IFIP TC2 working group on programming language design. Our proposal was approved on June 28, 2011 with the tentative group number 2.16.

Aim

To explore and evaluate new ideas in programming language design. Our stance is that programming languages are foremost a medium for expressing the structure and intention of software, and communicating these to other programmers. As such human factors must weigh heavily in language design decisions, requiring a well-judged balance between conflicting goals that are qualitative in nature.

Scope

• exploring programming paradigms and major language features, both established and novel;
• co-designing programming environments with such language features;
• articulating more clearly the problems of programming that language features are designed to address;
• identifying key design decisions that balance conflicting goals such as usability, expressivity, and the ability to provide tool support
• combining experiences and perspectives from the full spectrum of language paradigms and communities;
• conversing at a conceptual level that practicing language designers find useful, not restricted to mathematical formalisms or empirical hypotheses;
• meta-discussion of techniques for evaluating language design decisions;
• promulgating the appreciation of design considerations among researchers, practitioners, students, and teachers.

Organization

• Group Members
• Meetings
• What we do at our meetings

Visitors

Our working group welcomes visitors. If you or someone you know is interested in language design and would like to share your ideas with us, please get in touch with one of our members, sharing a little bit about your interest.