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I have been reading through a lot of the articles on here and I started think about all the reasons people have interests in programming languages. This popped into my head while specifically reading Matt Estes question concerning formal type systems.
Why do we pursue language designs and the issues that are coupled with the design?
Myself, I look at languages as tools for dealing with problems. Ultimately I care not about the workings of the tool(s) as long it does what I want it to do with a certain amount of ease. I guess that is often why I tend to lean more towards the quick and dirty languages like Lisp, Python, Javascript, and Perl (well not as much Perl because I usually can't read what I wrote afterwards, which is the same reason I print instead write in cursive).
I guess I find it hard to see programming languages from a research point of view. My mindset when looking at research goes something like 'do I need an operator for this', 'is this character intuitively representing its use', or 'how many keystrokes, and how far do my fingers have to move in order to accomplish X'? If I was to place blame, I would have to say that Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" did this to me. I can't look at anything with a blissfully ignorant eye, not wondering if design X of the product Y is the best for me.
With my reasons expressed (though short and potentially ambiguous), I would like to know the intentions others. I would like to know what I may be potentially missing from the field.
Thanks guys. =)
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PL Points of View or Why we do that thing we do?