Pragmatics of Programming Language Design

Effective design of a programming language requires a trinity: syntax (what are valid programs?), semantics (what does this valid program do?), and pragmatics (can people use this language to solve their problems?). Too often the PL research community focuses on the first two of these, much to the detriment of the practicing programmer.

In this talk, I will try to explain how to think about the pragmatics of a PL design, exploring two very different designs that I have contributed to.

Bio: Findler is an associate professor of computer science at Northwestern University. He is one of the principals of the Racket programming language and is the co-author of two books, “How to Design Programs” and “Semantics Engineering with PLT Redex”. He is a semi-regular visitor to Taiwan and loves the people, the food, and the climate.