You might be interested in Stefan Hanenberg's research:
https://www.dawis.wiwi.uni-due.de/en/team/stefan-hanenberg/
> Instead what you get from PL researchers is papers full of conjecture advocating some such language or construct, but seldom any scientific evidence to support any of it.
There is PL science and PL design. You won't see much PL design anymore in the academic conferences, they are mostly oriented toward PL science these days. Did you read the article at all? Excerpt:
> But the main point I want to make is that PL research is broader than designing and implementing new languages. To me, a PL researcher is someone who views the programming language as having a central place in solving computing problems.
In other words, PL research is not about designing PLs these days.
> Further, programming languages by themselves, in 2015, don't matter that much. Unless a language has an industrial-strength implementation, a robust tool chain, and a vast collection of libraries, it won't, or at least shouldn't, gain widespread adoption.
That is like saying theoretical physics research doesn't matter much anymore. We are reaping the benefits of 20 year-old PL research today, what about 20 years from now? Have we reached a point where what can be tried and improved in PL has already be done? PL is finished as a field where we can make progress?
> Of all the languages I've learned or at least been exposed to, only a handful were genuinely novel, such as Common Lisp/Scheme, Smalltalk, and Haskell, and rest were mere reskins of C.
What about the experimental languages that you haven't been exposed to? Like that first live programming language called Flogo II in somebodies dissertation? You will never program in that, but it moved us forward.
> largely from the vanity of their inventor, who dreams of becoming the next great BDFL, being invited to give keynotes at conferences, and capriciously giving his thumb up or down to enhancement proposal like a Roman Emperor deciding on the fate of a fallen gladiator in the Colosseum?
Trust me, there is no glory to be had in this game. At best, you'll get your name written down in lots of places, but even Guido van Rossum has a day job.
> I actually think we as an industry could benefit from a PL moratorium.
Why not just let the market sort it out?