[elcritch]

Also earlier versions of Java were a pain. The flexibility of a well thought out functional and dynamic language means new syntax to reduce boiler plate or extend generics don't need to be added. Compare Clojure to Scala for extreme examples in the JVM land. Similarly I think modern OO languages seem to be adding new syntax to handle OO complexities, e.g. much of the newest syntax additions to Python3 aren't useful (walrus operator? Well everything is already an expression... Etc).

In the end, I agree that the idea of a language which could be stable for a decade or more sounds fantastic! Given macros could add almost any other required feature should a good idea arise. Plus the BEAM and elixir compiler can continue improving performance and tooling.