Creating your Own Programming Language // Beyond Coding Podcast #44, Patrick Akil & Felienne Hermans

Genesis

Felienne Hermans embarked on the journey of creating the Hedy programming language to address the challenges faced by young students learning to code. Her experience in building developer tools and a passion for programming language design equipped her with the skills needed to create Hedy. She explains, "I think many people make a programming language because there isn't something that exactly fits their needs" 1. Hedy was designed to simplify coding for beginners, especially those who found existing languages like Python too complex 2 3.

   

Development

Developing Hedy involved overcoming significant technical challenges, such as transforming concepts into a functional language using tools like Lark and Sculpt. Felienne utilized these open-source projects to parse and run Python code in a browser, making it accessible for students without complex installations 4. She highlights the importance of maintaining a coherent design philosophy, akin to the "Harry Potter language design philosophy," where intuitive decisions lead to a cohesive language 5.

   

Scaling

Scaling Hedy from a small project to a globally used language required addressing both technical and user experience challenges. Felienne initially focused on small-scale solutions, adapting as the user base grew, which included translating keywords into multiple languages 6. She notes the difficulty in making decisions about language translations and UI design, especially when unfamiliar with certain languages, stating, "I have to make a decision, which do we pick? And I don't even speak that language" 7.