Wybe: Design of a Programming Language

We propose a set of design principles to guide the design of a programming language intended for general, practical use. These principles centre around supporting development of robust programs, supporting independent development and evolution of separate components of an application, and developing programs with adequate performance. We identify one key principle, interface integrity, as the most important characteristic of declarative programming languages. Following these principles has led to the development of the Wybe programming language, which provides a range of features common in functional, procedural, and logic programming languages. In particular, we argue that it provides much of the benefit of declarative programming languages, while providing much of the flexibility of imperative programming.