Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks

Chapter 5Julia

by Jack Moffitt and Bruce Tate

Writing a language is sometimes compared to writing a book. Each language has a voice. Sometimes, if too many people collaborate or if the language is written over too long a period of time, that voice becomes chaotic and disjointed. You can imagine our trepidation when we started working with Julia, which had four primary authors.

So far, the authors of this book have collectively interviewed 14 language creators. Sometimes, as with Haskell, we interviewed more than one, and once, with Prolog, we didn’t interview the creator. Each time, the process is different. There’s usually a dominant voice on the team. With Clojure, it’s unquestionably Rich Hickey, even after his company merged with Relevance, ...