[dmix]

> Configurations in Nix are written in a full-fledged programming language, featuring all manner of primitive datatypes (numbers, strings, file paths, etc), anonymous records and first-class functions. This is a very big deal for writing configurations in the large. Functions allow code reuse and abstraction, two crucial ingredients without which writing out configurations by hand would become unwieldy.

Off topic but this brings up a good point I've been curious about for a long time. Does anyone know why VimL is such a terrible language?

It's fascinating to think what potential it could have with a modern language natively supported like this. The use of Python/Lua etc seem like complicated hacks on top of it, not to mention the API with tons of globals.

[majewsky]

Slightly related: Why does Github call Vimscript "VimL"?

[dmix]

It's not just Github, the Vim filetype is "viml". It's a standard name for the language. Most likely meaning Vim Language.

[majewsky]

No, it's not. The filetype is "vim", and the filetype detection code explicitly calls it "Vim script": https://github.com/vim/vim/blob/4670490673ed98502a09b74fbabe...

[dmix]

You're right, apologies, I was thinking of the Syntastic/Neomake plugin which both use "VimL" as an identifer, which I had just set up this past weekend and I mistook that as the Vim filetype identifier.

Regardless Wikipedia says:

> Vim script (also called vimscript or VimL) is the scripting language built into Vim.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Vim_(text_editor)#/Vim_script

It's also colloquially referred to VimL across the web.

For those looking for an answer, the 3rd result from googling "VimL" is a question on StackOverflow "Why does VimL suck?" which does a good job of answering my question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/1bf672/why_does_viml_s...