[sdflkjsdlkj]

> is the programming language something that even matters?

It absolutely does. I think one of the major reasons that all these massive software companies grind to a halt with innovation is because of bad software architecture and a bad choice of programming language contributes to that. Also underlying systems built in non-performant languages hobble the company for years. It's complete delusion that a company will rewrite systems as they gain product market fit.

I have a strong list of requirements but there is no perfect language today. For general software any language I start a project with today must have

1. Fast iteration / compilation times

2. null safety

3. Some form of algebraic data types (and by implication a static type system)

4. Garbage collection (unless the domain specifically requires the performance benefits gained from forgoing a garbage collector).

5. A robust standard library and package ecosystem.

All of the above contribute to two very important things:

1. The ability to iterate quickly.

2. The ability to describe state in such a way that invalid states become impossible to represent due to the type checker.

Nice to have productivity boosters:

1. Actual value types

2. Pattern matching.

3. A good class system with traits or interfaces.

There isn't a perfect language that meets these requirements so there will always be tradeoffs with language choice.

[bragr]

> I think one of the major reasons that all these massive software companies grind to a halt with innovation is because of bad software architecture and a bad choice of programming language contributes to that.

I see social structures having far more influence on architecture than any underlying technical details so I feel your thesis is built on false premise

[Verdex]

> I see social structures having far more influence [...]

I don't know. If that were true, then we as a society would just architect our C/C++ based projects such that we don't bump into memory safety issues. Instead we see something like 70% of security issues coming from memory unsafety across the board.

The premise seems legit when thinking about it in terms of the issues with C.

[jaspax]

I think that typescript meets all 5 of the items in your first list.

[sdflkjsdlkj]

Except fast compile times unfortunately.

[swsieber]

I am curious to what you choose language wise though.

I currently go with Rust, but I'd be interested in other languages that meet most of your list and compile faster.

[freilanzer]

Common Lisp with Coalton seems to fit perfectly here.