notes-computer-jasper-jasperDevelopmentProcess

Initially (this part is an after-the-fact description):

• features that we want for jasper, and motivating principals, put into whyJasper.txt
• make list of programming constructs (organized as notes towards Programming Languages book)
• make list of extant programming languages and their strengths and weaknesses (organized as notes towards Programming Languages book)
• make list of programming language design criteria (organized as notes towards Programming Languages book)
• also take notes on how to implement programming languages, and on relevant theoretical constructs (organized as notes towards Programming Languages book)
• things to read and languages to learn, put into jasperToReads.txt
• observations and interesting links that may yield ideas for jasper, put into jasperNotesX.txt (where X is an integer, to break up the files into about 1000 lines ea)
• as it becomes clear that there are various major topics within the notes, create files like jasperSyntax.txt
• for each topic, the following schema (with topic 'syntax' as an example): jasperSyntax.txt for the current proposal, jasperSyntaxThoughts.txt for things that we think we want that haven't quite been concretized enough to form part of the proposal, jasperSyntaxNotesX.txt for relevant observations and links
• jasperSyntaxTable.txt to keep track of potential punctuation and potential syntactic uses that would need punctuation, and proposals for using a particular punctuation for a particular semantics
• jasperDesignChoices.txt to document why various choices were made
• jasper_slides.txt for a presentation-style variant of whyJasper.txt

If Jasper ever becomes a real language with a real community, then perhaps we'll switch to a PEP process for finished proposals, augmented with an ideas wiki. Most likely however the breaking/major versions will accept ideas not only through a PEP process, but also through random ideas of the style above.

3 justifications for language or compiler changes: (a) makes the compiler code shorter (b) makes the compiler run faster (c) on its own merits