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Ask HN: “Enabling” vs. “Restricting” in Programming

by Dan42 on 6/19/2023, 2:13:56 PM with 5 comments
A long time ago, around the time Joel Spolsky was the top programming blog, I read an article that split programming languages (or was it programmers?) between "enabling" and "restricting". Or they may have used slightly different words.

But basically, "enabling" languages are about giving a lot of power to the programmer and trusting him to use it right. Today it's exemplified by the Rails doctrine of "provide sharp knives" except the article I read predated that manifesto by a few years.

And "restricting" languages were about protecting the programmer from himself, enforcing strict interfaces, strict private/public, and in general restricting/guiding the programmer to the way that is considered correct design by the language. IIRC this was exemplified by Java.

Has anyone read or remember something like that?

  • by frou_dh on 6/19/2023, 6:06:44 PM

    Sounds like Steve Yegge's wheelhouse. Possibly this post https://gist.github.com/cornchz/3313150 but there are plenty more https://ratfactor.com/yeggedex

  • by Jtsummers on 6/19/2023, 3:08:42 PM

    https://wiki.c2.com/?BondageAndDisciplineLanguage

    Closest I know of, but many people have probably written on this topic.

  • by al2o3cr on 6/19/2023, 8:17:37 PM

    There was this talk ("Capability vs Sustainability") from 2012:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NftT6HWFgq0

    Very nearly exactly what you're describing; not sure if it's the same thing you were thinking of, or just part of a similar thought-wave at the time.