Comment by kaba0
4 years ago
Thanks for the answer! I totally agree on the not enough people read source code part — unfortunately I believe it is not only a language “barrier” thing. I mean, even in a language I know by heart, I probably could not make sense of some complex part of the linux kernel, because I lack both the underlying technical knowledge on some hardware interface, or the context of the code. And especially this latter can not be overcome with only code with good comments. It needs good documentation, which should give a basic understanding, and on top of it we can build the code for the fine detail. Of course it is a noble goal to try to decrease the surface area of the required knowledge, so props to you!
What’s your proposed solution to the problem with low and high level languages? Is the level 3 language a higher level one? Because I’n not sure there could exist a one language to rule them all, because of the inherent difference between the two domains.
Yeah, level 3 will be a HLL. It just doesn't matter too much which one it is, or that it "rules them all". A single reasonably high-level language X is in practice superior to a basket of high-level languages, even if some of the languages in the basket are individually higher-level than X.
You're absolutely right that languages are only part of the problem. Beyond the language choice, Mu provides guardrails to help you pick up the underlying technical knowledge by just trying things and seeing informative error messages (often failing tests) in response. That's the hope, anyway.
Right now the first HLL is still in progress. I spent some time with a postfix-based language before changing my mind. Now I'm working on a Lisp-based HLL. So I'm not dogmatic about what the HLL should be, and in time there will probably be multiple options in separate forks/repos.
Thank you for the discussion and good luck with your project!