Road to Wheeler

Over the summer I sketched out a new programming language which I’ve tentatively named Wheeler. I’m still working on the implementation, though I have a crude prototype which I presented last month to the Westside Programmer’s group in Beaverton. The limited feedback I’ve received so far (aside from “WTF?”) has included comparisons with Prolog and Haskell. I’d like to talk more about this new language here, but before I do I want to pave the way with some short posts highlighting some of the thinking and motivation behind the language. This is the first post in that series.

From Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five”:

Billy couldn’t read Tralfamadorian, of course, but he could at least see how the books were laid out – in brief clumps of symbols separated by stars. Billy commented that the clumps might be telegrams.

“Exactly,” said the voice.

“They are telegrams?”

“There are no telegrams on Tralfamadore. But you’re right: each clump of symbols is a brief, urgent message – describing a situation, a scene. We Tralfamadorians read them all at once, not one after the other. There isn’t any particular relationship between all the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of the many marvelous moments seen all at one time.”