“Enabling” vs. “Restricting” in Programming

Question

A long time ago, around the time Joel Spolsky was the top programming blog, I read an article that split programming languages (or was it programmers?) between "enabling" and "restricting". Or they may have used slightly different words.But basically, "enabling" languages are about giving a lot of power to the programmer and trusting him to use it right. Today it's exemplified by the Rails doctrine of "provide sharp knives" except the article I read predated that manifesto by a few years.And "restricting" languages were about protecting the programmer from himself, enforcing strict interfaces, strict private/public, and in general restricting/guiding the programmer to the way that is considered correct design by the language. IIRC this was exemplified by Java.Has anyone read or remember something like that?

frou_dh · Accepted Answer

Sounds like Steve Yegge's wheelhouse. Possibly this post https://gist.github.com/cornchz/3313150 but there are plenty more https://ratfactor.com/yeggedex

Jtsummers · Answer

https://wiki.c2.com/?BondageAndDisciplineLanguageClosest I know of, but many people have probably written on this topic.

al2o3cr · Answer

There was this talk ("Capability vs Sustainability") from 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NftT6HWFgq0
Very nearly exactly what you're describing; not sure if it's the same thing you were thinking of, or just part of a similar thought-wave at the time.

“Enabling” vs. “Restricting” in Programming

Sounds like Steve Yegge's wheelhouse. Possibly this post https://gist.github.com/cornchz/3313150 but there are plenty more https://ratfactor.com/yeggedex

https://wiki.c2.com/?BondageAndDisciplineLanguageClosest I know of, but many people have probably written on this topic.

There was this talk ("Capability vs Sustainability") from 2012:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NftT6HWFgq0Very nearly exactly what you're describing; not sure if it's the same thing you were thinking of, or just part of a similar thought-wave at the time.

https://wiki.c2.com/?BondageAndDisciplineLanguage
Closest I know of, but many people have probably written on this topic.

There was this talk ("Capability vs Sustainability") from 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NftT6HWFgq0
Very nearly exactly what you're describing; not sure if it's the same thing you were thinking of, or just part of a similar thought-wave at the time.