OOPSLA Conference: Growing a Language

[Recorded on October 1998]

From University Video Communications' catalog:

"Over the last quarter-century Guy Steele has been convinced that trying to design a complete and perfect programming language is the worst thing you can do. A programming language (including its associated libraries) must grow over time as its user community and its development community grow. This is a different situation from 25 years ago, when all such communities were relatively small. The difference is a problem of scale. As a result, programming language design now and in the future is necessarily as much a matter of social engineering as technical engineering and must rely more on a set of general principles than on a set of specific technical decisions."

Catalog number: 102706476
Lot number: X6636.2013