I'd say reducing weird syntax is a perfectly good reason. How is doing this while offering an easy migration solution in an early stage language a "huge red flag"?
There's a very good example in C++ of how this causes problems, where vector::clear and vector::empty are much too easy to confuse (which one of them deletes all elements, and which one of them checks if a vector is empty?). Replacing them with clear! and empty? (or is it clear? and empty!) would be a huge improvement. Whenever a language moves away from arbitrary legacy restrictions, that's a good thing.
I keep hearing this excuse, and to be honest I don't like it. On one hand we want to expand the usage of Elm, and have Elm be taken seriously, on the other hand when we feel like we use the "early stage" language excuse.
> I'd say reducing weird syntax is a perfectly good reason
I disagree with you on this, prohibiting the users from using the prime character has nothing to do with the language's syntax.
If I didn't know what changes we're referring to, it would sound like there was some critical change to the core functionality of the language.
Instead, they're removing one weird bit of syntax. It's not an excuse that it's an early stage language - it's acknowledging reality. And an upside to that reality is that making these types of changes won't upset nearly as many people as it would if it were a more mature language.
> I disagree with you on this, for me it is very worrying.
You're not explaining why. Here (https://github.com/elm-lang/elm-plans/issues/4) are three good arguments for removing it:
1. It confuses newbies.
2. It's an easy character to miss.
3. It's easy to migrate away from it.
What are your arguments for keeping it besides the fact it's already there?
Most likely the reason is that you want to make something that you yourself are proud of or at least satisfied with.
Unless you're being paid for the project, satisfying your psychological goals should be the prime point of pre-version 1.0 software.
1. If it is not ready for prime time, maybe we should stop promoting it?
2. React was 0.14 up to a year or so ago. The number doesn't mean anything.
Apparently, prime time came and went :)
> If it is not ready for prime time, maybe we should stop promoting it?
It's about as ready as the impression it makes: yes, you can use it for project. But you may need half an hour every few months to update.
