Pliant language and FullPliant operating system

Okay, I'm hooked.

EDIT:

So I tried FullPliant for about 30 minutes.

* FullPliant is a distro. From the documentation: "operating system and administration tools" (as one layer). The administration tool can be access remotely. It feels like Redhat + Cockpit to me.

* It's a kind of web-based environment. Each view has a `loopback://` url.

* It has some interesting applications. Virtualization ones can be handy for operating mini boxes.

* The UI is, indeed, very consistent. All menu operations can be accessed with Alt+( ) combination. This feels very solid and convenient.

But, overall, UI needs some more work.

* UIs are buggy in some deeper parts.

* WYSIWYG editor is buggy.

* Doesn't support text selection nor block delete (i.e. ctrl-backspace).

* UI elements aren't kind. (i.e. calendar app requires you to punch in date-string directly.)

(TBH, these are all not so fun to work on.)

Apparently, the author used his own creation to roll some industrial boxes. If so, it does explain the application line up and the overall look-and-feel. This can be useful for driving server boxes with specific goals, but is less of a do-it-all desktop environment.

From the description: It prooves that in other softwares, the signal to noise ratio in the code is very low. Free and closed softwares are no different in this area. Counting typically brings 99% noise. No programmer can believe that, even if he can quite easily verify it through counting lines. This is just a perfect illustration of cognitive dissonance. I trace the poor signal to noise ratio in classical softwares to four reasons:

  * use of poor languages with no decent meta programming capabilities (poor expressivity)
  * poor software design (code layering)
  * unability to concentrate on ironing out core features instead of adding new not really usefull ones
  * and finaly interfacing different pieces of software with quite different logic and conventions instead of building an overall consistent system.

It's a shame the documentation is a little unclear and the author could do with some help with translation.

The author focuses on metaprogramming (something like hygienic macros that are more efficient) as the only real needed extra feature over C. He says that with this other stuff can be built at need using libraries.

The upside is that new language features are just libraries that gain or lose popularity as time goes on, allowing the core language to be more or less the same as it was at its inception while still staying alive. This advantage is shared by Common Lisp for the same reasons.

The disadvantage is that since anybody can make a new sublanguage simply by writing a library, you're left with a fight between libraries on what language features are important for the whole group, splintering the group into different sub language dialect camps. This is part of the curse of lisp. The upside might be that it's still probably pretty difficult to write meta programming in Pliant relative to lisp because of its focus on efficiency. Perhaps this will save it from most of the curse. Time will tell.

I have never yet seen a "C++ Replacement" language's more carefully argued or justified using simpler arguments than this language. That the core language will probably endure easily is very exciting to me, especially after seeing the evolution that C and C++ has gone through over the years and how hard changing the language is nowadays. In the language overview the author makes some very good points about why he chose what he chose in his design decisions.

Other replacement languages try to simply make design decisions based on taste. This is not a bad thing; some language designers have excellent taste. But it is nice to have a plain explanation as to why specific features were included in a language.

One last thought I did have was that if language features are libraries, there had better be a very good dependency manager and packaging solution for this language from day one if it is to be usable.

1: http://www.fullpliant.org/page/pliant/3SR6QMB8/0EEMUVD

There's a language and I think a bespoke database. Some web things. Probably not an OS and there are references to a patched Linux kernel.

Quite difficult to determine the language semantics. I think it's a hybrid of lisp and C.

This guy has some Stallman vibes, in the good sense.

Unfortunately I can't click the site's links on mobile (Safari, iOS 15.6.1). Where do I file a bug report?

Great sounds like another idiotic thing I can skip.

> * The UI is, indeed, very consistent. All menu operations can be accessed with Alt+( ) combination. This feels very solid and convenient.

This is a feature of all products created by a single entity.