> ...understand the web app’s requirements during the build time and reason about it before generating the final code. For example... it could pick the most appropriate architecture based on its understanding of the web app and deploy it to serverless or another type of architecture.
Wowzer! For me, this is the main benefit. I'm a big believer in low-code platforms like darklang, because the fundamental truth that bugs are a function of both SLoC and underlying infrastructure is never going to change, and one solution to that is to automate as much of it as possible.
The only problem I see is that these automations that eliminate code and abstract away the infrastructure often result in a new class of harder-to-debug or worse never-seen-before bugs. And so, building a language that "solves software engineering" may require a lot of patience and perseverance. With that in mind, how long do you plan to keep at it? How long term are you thinking you'd be doing this? I mean, you could still be working on wasp-lang whilst working full-time elsewhere... but then, that requires a different level of commitment when the business around it has failed.
> Wasp’s compiler is built in Haskell
Two questions, if I may: Why Haskell? Did you also consider OCaml (à la Rust) at some point?
Edit: I see wasp-lang is MIT licensed. Why not Apache v2 (or even MPL v2)? Especially since MIT lacks patent-grants clause.
thanks for your feedback and questions! yes, it (build-time reasoning) is also the most exciting thing for us, really excited to see what can be done.
I also totally agree on being harder to debug, that is the challenge that comes with abstraction - at this stage we are not doing very much about it (mostly just propagating errors from server/client) but it is something we'll definitely need to focus on as Wasp matures.
We chose Haskell because we had some previous experience with it and thought it would be a good fit for building a compiler (doesn't have a lot of realtime IO so we can keep the code simpler). Haven't yet tried OCaml or Rust (heard Rust is somewhat more low-lvl) but I believe they would be viable alternatives too.
Re long-term doing Wasp - also agree, we believe this is a full-time job so that is why we joined YC and got the initial funding so we can focus on it longer term.
Re Apache v2 vs MIT - thanks for letting us know! We haven't yet put much investigation into it but will definitely need to do it soon.
> Re long-term doing Wasp - also agree, we believe this is a full-time job so that is why we joined YC...
All good, but what I really meant was, what happens when that funding money runs out and/or there's no business around wasp-lang to corner more investment?
> Re Apache v2 vs MIT...
Golang's BSD 3-Clause + patent-grant; and Rust's dual-licensed MIT (for compatibility with GPL v2, I believe) + Apache v2; whilst Clojure is EPL v1, though EPL v2 (+ the GPL compatibility clause) may also be a decent weak-copyleft choice for a programming language (ianal).
Get it now! The big part in our opinion is growing a community of people using Wasp for their projects - if we manage to do that, we'll definitely be motivated to continue, funding or no funding. We are of course motivated to build a business on top of Wasp, but for now still focusing on the product.
Thanks for the info about licenses, awesome overview!
Wowzer! For me, this is the main benefit. I'm a big believer in low-code platforms like darklang, because the fundamental truth that bugs are a function of both SLoC and underlying infrastructure is never going to change, and one solution to that is to automate as much of it as possible.
The only problem I see is that these automations that eliminate code and abstract away the infrastructure often result in a new class of harder-to-debug or worse never-seen-before bugs. And so, building a language that "solves software engineering" may require a lot of patience and perseverance. With that in mind, how long do you plan to keep at it? How long term are you thinking you'd be doing this? I mean, you could still be working on wasp-lang whilst working full-time elsewhere... but then, that requires a different level of commitment when the business around it has failed.
> Wasp’s compiler is built in Haskell
Two questions, if I may: Why Haskell? Did you also consider OCaml (à la Rust) at some point?
Edit: I see wasp-lang is MIT licensed. Why not Apache v2 (or even MPL v2)? Especially since MIT lacks patent-grants clause.
Excited to see how wasp-lang evolves. Thanks!