You are correct in pointing out that the word "overdesigned" doesn't actually mean what it says. Mostly it's just an epithet that people fling at any interface that does more than they're interested in at the moment. More specifically, it's how you describe an interface that, by trying to make too many hard things possible, ends up making easy things hard as well. In this second sense, the interface is "overdesigned" in the sense that it would have been better (for typical tasks) if the designer had stopped adding features earlier.

Perl 6 is certainly "overdesigned" in the first sense. Indeed, every version of Perl has intentionally been overdesigned in that sense. However, it is the second sense that we worry about in the design of Perl 6. Only time will tell if we've worried about it enough that Perl 6 will be perceived as not just overdesigned, but also elegantly designed. There are a lot of elegant ideas in Perl 6--the main question is whether there are too many of them, tied together inelegantly.

People keep trotting out the phrase "second system effect" like some kind of cargo-cult mantra, not seeming to understand that we already know about second system effect, and that part of the reason Perl 6 is taking so long is precisely because we're taking the time to try to compensate for it. That's why our slogan is "Second System Syndrome Done Right!" Of course, it could be one of those things that gets you recursively even if you take it into account, like Hofstadter's Law. But we try to take that into account too, for what it's worth. :-)

In reply to Re: What does "overdesigned" mean? by TimToady
in thread OT? Pragmatic Perl by Eyck

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