One thing that bothers me about languages that compose functions like this
f(g(x)) is that when programming interactively
f is typically an afterthought. So, you start out with
g(x) and then need to go all the way back and add
f. Similarly, when
x turns out like it needs to be elaborated, and you either have to go all the way back, or edit the expression in place making it longer and inevitably facing problems with terminal length and terminal input being determined by when you press "Enter".
I like Lisp languages, and would take Scheme over Python for my job in a heartbeat, if I was allowed to. But, I think, that if we want interactive Shell-like programming, we really need to address the issues above in the language. Shell pipes are a good start, but they are quite restricted in what they can do and require xargs "extension". Some languages also have the "where" form, where arguments to a function can be elaborated after the function call.
If I was ever to design a language for interactive programming, I'd certainly try to have these two features in it.
I like Lisp languages, and would take Scheme over Python for my job in a heartbeat, if I was allowed to. But, I think, that if we want interactive Shell-like programming, we really need to address the issues above in the language. Shell pipes are a good start, but they are quite restricted in what they can do and require xargs "extension". Some languages also have the "where" form, where arguments to a function can be elaborated after the function call.
If I was ever to design a language for interactive programming, I'd certainly try to have these two features in it.