Lambda the Ultimate

In the history of PL design there has been quite a bit of vitriol spilled over design choices. These days bringing up "static vs dynamic typing" is a good way to generate some heat on a cold winter web forum.

But a few debates seem to have been pretty firmly resolved, at least for general purpose languages. GP languages have considered goto harmful for decades now, dynamic scoping is seen as a real oddity, and manual memory management is a choice only made by systems language designers.

Questions for LtU: What other debates have been "resolved" in the sense that general purpose languages are hardly ever designed with an alternative to the consensus? What debates will be resolved in the near future? And what apparently resolved debates deserve to be reopened?

One rule: "static vs dynamic typing" will be considered off topic because clearly and emphatically that debate hasn't been resolved and has no prospect of being resolved any time soon. Also, it's boring.