Language Design: Modern and Minimal

1. A smaller language, not a bigger one
   • namespaces: types, terms, packages, fields, methods, labels
   • modifiers: keywords, annotations
   • nesting: packages, modules, static
   • members: fields, methods, properties
   • control flow: if-then-else, return, while, break, continue, loop, exceptions, throw, catch
   • constructors: primary, secondary
   • literals: octal number literals, class literals, …
2. Correctness
   • separate types for identity/equality, ordering/comparing
3. Fewer special-cases, not more
   • operators: unary operators, fewer binary operators
   • magic methods on all types
   • collection literals, array syntax
   • instance-of-syntax, cast-syntax
   • types have consistent casing (uppercase)
4. Simplicity, not familiarity
   • generics with <>
   • member definition syntax differs only by fun, let or var
5. Higher Standards
   • simple to specify
   • simple to implement
   • simple to understand