Coming back to this again.
I'm curious what people mean when they talk about "a small set of orthogonal primitives".
Specifically:
1️⃣ What does "primitive" mean to you.
2️⃣ What does "orthogonal" mean to you.
(Polls in replies.) twitter.com/dubroy/status/…
I'm curious what people mean when they talk about "a small set of orthogonal primitives".
Specifically:
1️⃣ What does "primitive" mean to you.
2️⃣ What does "orthogonal" mean to you.
(Polls in replies.) twitter.com/dubroy/status/…
Patrick Dubroy
@dubroy
·
Nov 7
I keep thinking about this.
If "a small set of orthogonal primitives" is good, why does *no* popular language have this?
Possible explanations:
1️⃣ It's not good
2️⃣ It's good, but doesn't drive adoption
3️⃣ Number of primitives should be "just right" (not too big, not too small) twitter.com/dubroy/status/…
If "a small set of orthogonal primitives" is good, why does *no* popular language have this?
Possible explanations:
1️⃣ It's not good
2️⃣ It's good, but doesn't drive adoption
3️⃣ Number of primitives should be "just right" (not too big, not too small) twitter.com/dubroy/status/…
A "primitive" means…
1️⃣ Syntactic features of the language *only*
2️⃣ Features (e.g. functions/classes) in the core library
3️⃣ Both
4️⃣ Something else (reply with details)
1️⃣ Syntactic features of the language *only*
2️⃣ Features (e.g. functions/classes) in the core library
3️⃣ Both
4️⃣ Something else (reply with details)
Now the meaning of "orthogonal"…
Do you consider functions and variable declarations to be orthogonal features?
Do you consider functions and variable declarations to be orthogonal features?
Do you consider classes and functions to be orthogonal?
Do you consider "if" statements and "while" loops to be orthogonal?
Do you consider dictionaries and arrays to be orthogonal?
https://twitter.com/dubroy/status/1759219008941768818 ∙ Archived on 2025-03-28.