The first post is always the hardest, right?  Well, this ain’t so bad.

So, this is Nexxi, a programming language for the JVM.  By way of background, I was involved in another JVM language project until late last year.  It eventually became clear to me that that language was not going to be one I would ever use, and as I had only started contributing to the project because I needed a language . . . I decided it was time to move on.

Nexxi is an experiment.  I expect I will implement it in the coming months, but right now, it’s still very much in the idea stage.  My goal is to produce an orthogonal, intuitive language that provides appropriate tools for the way I develop software.  I make no promises that it will be useful to anyone else.  That said, I doubt my development process is so unique that Nexxi will not find other users.

So what is it I need in a language?  Well, I need something that lets me build things quickly, that lets me experiment with ideas and designs and that doesn’t get too worried that I’m playing fast and loose with things like variable typing and error handling.  But (and it’s a big “but”): once the ideas are figured out, once the design is working, I need a language that lets me convert that prototype into something robust and performant, something that will stand the test of time.  Further, it must allow me to do it incrementally.  In short, I need a language that supports my development process from idea through to release-quality product.

Nexxi will be it’s own language.  It is not going to try to be anything but itself.  That said, it does draw ideas from my own favourite languages (and some successful ones I don’t so much like): Ruby, Java, Python, OCAML, Scheme, Eiffel, and others.  What can I guarantee about the finished product?

• It will have closures.
• It will have native syntax for doing common stuff (like lists and hashes and regular expressions).
• It will be strongly-typed, but will have fully-supported dynamic typing.
• It will be useful both interpreted and compiled.

As to what that will look like?  Well, I have some ideas, but they’ve got a long way to go before I’d call it a design.

So, welcome to Nexxi.