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How do you prototype a nice language?

kevinlynagh.com · 1,227 words · saved by 1 readers

I’ve spent the past month prototyping my codeCAD language. However, while I’ve made tons of zero-to-one-type progress (an EBNF grammar, parser, function definitions, evaluation, and numeric solving!), the current possible demos are all terribly underwhelming — think the game programmer’s “triangle with color gradient” or the hardware engineer’s “PCB with a single blinking LED”. However, even once I’m further along I suspect the demos will be fairly underwhelming — I’m not one-shot prompting my way to production G-code or building a slick augmented reality, Minority Report UI. Rather, I’m after a particular kind of software hygge: Loads instantly, doesn’t crash, and fits nicely in the hand. The objective is a feeling, and there’s no point trying to convince people — either the software exists and evokes the feeling, or it doesn’t. Pitching it feels as nonsensical to me as pitching the deliciousness of an unbaked cake (which is why you haven’t heard about my crunchy tiramisu). Unfortunat

How do you prototype a nice language? ← Back to Kevin's newsletters Published: 2025 June 3 How do you prototype a nice language? I've spent the past month prototyping my codeCAD language. However, while I've made tons of zero-to-one-type progress (an EBNF grammar, parser, function definitions, evaluation, and numeric solving!), the current possible demos are all terribly underwhelming - think the game programmer's "triangle with color gradient" or the hardware engineer's "PCB with a single blinking LED". However, even once I'm further along I suspect the demos will be fairly underwhelming

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