Editing Arc (programming language) (section)

==Motives==
In the essay ''Being Popular''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paulgraham.com/popular.html |title=Being Popular |last=Graham |first=Paul |date=May 2001 |website=PaulGraham.com |access-date=2018-12-05}}</ref> Graham describes a few of his goals for the language. While many of the goals are very general ("Arc should be hackable", "there should be good [[Library (computing)|libraries]]"), he did give some specifics. For example, he believes it is important for a language to be terse:
{{Quote |It would not be far from the truth to say that a hacker about to write a program decides what language to use, at least subconsciously, based on the total number of characters he'll have to type. If this isn't precisely how hackers think, a language designer would do well to act as if it were.}}

He also stated that it is better for a language to only implement a small number of ''axioms'', even when that means the language may not have features that large organizations want, such as [[Object-oriented programming|object-orientation]] (OO). Further, Graham thinks that OO is not useful as its methods and [[Software design pattern|patterns]] are just "good design", and he views the language features used to implement OO as partly mistaken.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paulgraham.com/noop.html |title=Why Arc Isn't Especially Object-Oriented |last=Graham |first=Paul |website=PaulGraham.com |access-date=2018-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paulgraham.com/arcfaq.html |title=Arc FAQ |last=Graham |first=Paul |website=PaulGraham.com |access-date=2018-12-05}}</ref> At Arc's introduction in 2008, Graham stated one of its benefits was its brevity.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Huber |first=Mathias |date=2008-02-08 |url=http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/Arc-Makes-Programs-Shorter |title=Arc Makes Programs Shorter |magazine=Linux Magazine |location=Lawrence, Kansas |publisher=Linux New Media USA |access-date=2018-11-25}}</ref>

A controversy among Lisp programmers is whether, and how much, the [[s-expression]]s of the language should be complemented by other forms of [[syntax]]. Graham thinks that added syntax should be used in situations where pure s-expressions would be overly verbose, saying, "I don't think we should be religiously opposed to introducing syntax into Lisp." Graham also thinks that efficiency problems should be solved by giving the programmer a good [[Profiling (computer programming)|profiler]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paulgraham.com/langdes.html |title=Five Questions About Language Design |last=Graham |first=Paul |date=May 2001 |website=PaulGraham.com |access-date=2018-12-05}}</ref>

=== Reception ===
When released in 2008, Arc generated mixed reactions, with some calling it simply an extension to Lisp or [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]] and not a programming language in its own right. Others applauded Arc for stripping Lisp down to bare essentials. Shortly after its release, Arc was ported to [[JavaScript]], and was being supported by ''Schemescript'', an [[integrated development environment]] (IDE) based on [[Eclipse (software)|Eclipse]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/07/lisp_arc_challenge/ |title=Web pioneer hits critics with Lisp gauntlet |website=The Register |date=2008-02-07 |place=[[United Kingdom|UK]]}}</ref>