Syntax = Most Important Aspect of a Programing Language
The quality of a programing language, can be judged by how much of it can be explained by its syntax alone.
You know how in object oriented programing, there's a concept of “interface” or API? Namely, interface is all you need to know to use a object or device. You do not need to know how or what's underneath. For functions, sometimes this is called the function's “signature”.
In the same way, one approach to view computer languages is the syntax, and syntax alone. You only need to know the syntax, nothing much else.
This is called formal language, or formal system of mathematics.
With this perspective, the languages are ranked roughly in this order:
Mathematica ≻ APL ≻ LISP ≻ PHP ≻ JavaScript ≻ Ruby ≻ Perl ≻ Python ≻ Java
The following is a index of critique of programing languages, with respect to formal language judgement.
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