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There is a proliferation of opinions on the aesthetic virtues and downfalls of programming languages, and of what features
are important when designing a language. However, while there is an abundance of papers on the design of a language’s semantic
operations, there are surprisingly few published works on programming language usability as it pertains purely to syntax.
It must also be considered that there are essential differences between the syntactic structure and features of a programming
language and those that the HUTN languages might contain. While a programming language is aimed at the modification and maintenance
of a (usually abstract) body of information, the HUTN languages are required purely for the display of information. For this
reason, programming language features such as control constructs have no real relevance to HUTN languages.
Two usability works on programming languages and their syntax were considered to assist in identifying principles upon which
to design the HUTN languages. The first [McIver96] is a paper by McIver and Conway from Monash University, which identifies
and explore problems associated with languages used as first languages for the teaching of programming. The paper also discusses
a number of directions for the design of such a language. The other [RL77] is a paper by Richard and Ledgard of the University
of Massachusetts, and discussed a number of principles for syntax design, with a view to designing a general purpose programming
language called Utopia84. From these papers and from independent consideration, a number of principles have been assembled
for the design of the HUTN language.