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"The Economics of Programming Languages" by Evan Czaplicki (Strange Loop 2023)

Strange Loop Conference · 141.4K views · 2023-10-05 · 43:58

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Overview

Evan Czaplicki, creator of Elm, examines how programming languages are funded. He looks at where compiler engineers' salaries come from, why Go has about 5 engineers while Dart has about 30, and how this limits language design.

On Hacker News

Recommended repeatedly as a funny, informative talk on the economics behind programming languages and open source.

Recommended by 10 HN people across 8 months · HN mentions 2023–2026

Topics

Programming language designSoftware practice, open source & careers
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open source fundingelmlanguage adoptionstrange loopevan czaplicki

What people said

arcadia_leak · 2026-02 · Strong recommendation

> This talk explain why, it's not technical: [VIDEO] Really good talk, I remember watching it when it came out. Elm is what got me looking into FP several years ago, a nice language it was.

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__rito__ · 2023-12 · Strong recommendation

For me, my favorites were: 0. "Computational Physics, Beyond the Glass" by Sam Ritchie (Strange Loop 2023) - [LINK] - This guy created an interactive Lisp-based Physics visualizer and got started on it by reading Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics . He now has a full-fledged project, and touches upon many ideas for educating people through innovative means. Really loved this video. Connected the ideas of Logo programming environment and something like a LISP-Physics visualizer. 1. "The Economics of Programming Languages" by Evan Czaplicki (Strange Loop 2023) - [VIDEO] - How does creating a new programming language work really? Who are the players, and what goes behind? Very highly recommend this funny, informative talk to understand aspects of creating a programming language other than the theoretical ones. 2. Function Composition in Programming Languages - Conor Hoekstra - CppNorth 2023 - [LINK] - This is actually about array languages and Haskell and not C++. Encountered "tacit" programming for the first time, and it opened a slightly new way of thinking for me. And others that I liked were: 0. Ruby on Rails: The Documentary - [LINK] - Not a Rubbyist, but still liked this documentary. 1. "Software & The Game of Go" by David Nolen (Strange Loop 2023) - [LINK] 2. "Making Hard Things Easy" by Julia Evans (Strange Loop 2023) - [LINK] - I always liked Evans' written content and zines, as they were fun to read and helped people. It was nice to see how she operate

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p0nce · 2026-02 · Recommendation

> Are there technical reasons that Rust took off and D didn't? This talk explain why, it's not technical: [VIDEO] > What are some advantages of D over Rust (and vice versa)? Advantages for D: Build faster, in typical programs you would need about 20 packages not 100, COM objects, easy meta-programming, 3 compilers. GC, way better at scripting. Advantages for Rust: borrow-checker is better. rustup.

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Sources

Video by Strange Loop Conference, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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