[beckford]

Was in agreement until I drilled down to the following statement on the Wing GitHub page and in the docs (https://docs.winglang.io/faq/why-a-language#very-cool-but-wh...):

“In existing languages, where there is no way to distinguish between multiple execution phases, it is impossible to naturally represent this idea that an object has methods that can only be executed from within a specific execution phase.”

This is not true. Several languages (Haskell, OCaml, F#, Scala, etc) allow you to define and use monads. Granted, monads are not something many developers know about … but it may make sense to learn about them before writing a new language.

Otherwise, this is a great read.

[JoelMcCracken]

Great point. This also reminds me of discussion I saw somewhere else about programming languages with execution capabilities support for security, the author saying that no languages supported it, and a commenter saying that this was basically the same as an effects system.

I'm personally a professional Haskell programmer and quite like it, but I think we are circling a core notion: There are many problems with having programming languages where any code can do literally anything at all, and being able to restrict it is extremely powerful.

Constraints liberate, liberties constrain. You can always loosen strictures, but once loosened, they are extremely hard to reintroduce.

[shaiber]

Thanks, we'll rephrase to say that it is impossible in most languages, not all. BTW, the company that is behind the project is called Monada (https://monada.co), so we've heard of monads :) Would be happy to hear what else you think about the language