The Rule of Least Power - does it miss the point?

[Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@datadirect.com>]

After following the discussion on this list and elsewhere, I decided to 
blog on it:

http://blogs.datadirect.com/jonathan_robie/2006/03/the_rule_of_lea_1.html

I agree with all the basic goals of the Finding:

   *      Simplicity
   *      Predictability
   *      Ease of analysis (for both computers and people)
   *      Reuse of information
   *      Security


But the benefits this Finding claims for less powerful languages are 
actually benefits that just happen to be found in some languages that 
also just happen to be less powerful. But that does not mean the best 
way to achieve these goals is to use the least powerful language - there 
are languages that fail to deliver much power, but are also complex, 
hard to read, unpredictable, and dangerous. To me, the Finding seems to 
focus on optimizing the wrong thing.

Jonathan

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