- good developer tooling, e.g. a language server
- This is not yet possible, but a good optimiser which can turn an abstract representation of the code into optimal code for a given hardware (CPU or GPU). Currently we are far from this, there is probably a 10x improvement that current compilers can't achieve. See for example a FizzBuzz implementation achieving ~10x throughput improvement after months of optimisation work:
https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/215216/high-thr...
More complex code is likely much more improvable.
I like that last point too, as copilot I think is going in the right direction with "step 1" of full optimisation. Maybe step 2 would be some AI based optimiser scheme to transform IR into optimal cpu/gpu ISA. Though maybe stability would be a problem
- versatility: create desktop apps, mobile apps, websites, CLI
- quality of IDE / tooling
- lots of libraries to deal with all sort of corner problems
- lots of knowledge I can google
- if used professionally: lots of talents available
For the language itself, I only really care about one thing: statically typed, just because it eliminates all sort of silly bugs and makes refactoring and navigating the code so much easier. But I am not dealing with hard computer science problems.
But the most important thing is muscle memory: not having to even think of how to solve something, just do it. We can probably adapt to any major language, but you aren't productive until you develop muscle memory. That's why I am not looking to switch to any shiny new thing unless I have a really compelling reason to do so.