# Programming Language Checklist

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457>\
**Category:** Offtopic\
**Created:** [February 11, 2020, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457 "2020-02-11T09:25:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![johnh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/johnh/32/3615_2.png) [@johnh](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/johnh)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457/1 "2020-02-11T09:25:44Z")

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[https://www.famicol.in/language\_checklist.html](https://www.famicol.in/language_checklist.html)

I will start the ball rolling. Any more to check?

The name of your language makes it impossible to find on Google

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 9:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457/2 "2020-02-11T09:45:20Z")

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You require the compiler to be present at runtime

I don’t see why that is bad though. Julia also _provides_ the compiler at runtime, so it is available.

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**Author:** ![Per](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/per/32/10387_2.png) [@Per](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Per)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457/3 "2020-02-11T13:53:22Z")

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significant whitespace

(For example: `[1 -1] ≠ [1 - 1]`.)

Not as bad as Python, though.

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**Author:** ![kristoffer.carlsson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kristoffer.carlsson/32/22_2.png) [@kristoffer.carlsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kristoffer.carlsson)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457/4 "2020-02-11T14:02:17Z")

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Garbage collection is free  
 “Spooky action at a distance” makes programming more fun (type piracy)  
 Matrix-math benchmarks where you just call BLAS  
 No language spec  
 “The implementation is the spec”

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 2:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457/5 "2020-02-11T14:13:37Z")

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I don’t understand why not having an (independent, formal) specification is considered unusual for a new language.

It is pretty much impossible to create a nontrivial and novel language with a finalized spec. Either it is going to be super-simple like Scheme, a \epsilon improvement on an existing language, or take 15–20 years until someone bothers to do an official spec (eg C or Common Lisp).

When done too early, all specifications do is tie down the best minds working on the language for years, essentially stalling all development.

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**Author:** ![John\_Gibson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/john_gibson/32/5321_2.png) [@John\_Gibson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/John_Gibson)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457/6 "2020-02-11T14:59:56Z")

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On the other hand, Julia disproving these is impressive:  
 Interpreted languages will never be as fast as C  
 Compiled languages will never be “extensible”

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**Author:** ![Elrod](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/elrod/32/22461_2.png) [@Elrod](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Elrod)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 4:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-language-checklist/34457/7 "2020-02-12T04:48:13Z")

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> [@johnh](#):
>
> The name of your language makes it impossible to find on Google

That Google works so hard to show everyone what they want to see might put everyone in a bubble and lead to the collapse of civilization, but on the other hand I actually don’t have much trouble finding results about Julia the language.