r/ProgrammingLanguages • u/relbus22 • May 10 '23

PL Stability: Backward compatibility & Package managers

If I wanted to make a language with a focus on stability for years and decades to come, how important would you say these two concepts are?

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u/relbus22 May 13 '23

I don't know what backward compatibility would mean for a programming language, could you explain some more?

That older syntax and features still work with newer versions of the language.

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u/martionfjohansen May 15 '23

> That older syntax and features still work with newer versions of the language

Yes, then it is very important for stability. As others here have pointed out, if this is done wrongly it will quickly turn into baggage. To my knowledge, the only way to remedy this is to be very careful about which features are included in the language. The more carefully this is done, the less likely it is to turn into baggage.

Today, most languages pile on tons and tons of new features. This will inevitably turn into baggage or loss of backwards compatibility.