Neel Krishnaswami remembers John Reynolds. One particular quote that struck me (highlighted by Lindsey Kuper) is this:

So this was John [Reynolds]’s definition of a successful language design: if you have a user who has used it to write a program you couldn’t have, your language has succeeded, since it has helped a fellow human being solve one of their own particular problems.

I’ve always liked his definition, since it manages to avoid an obsession with nose-counting popularity metrics, while still remembering the essentially social purpose of language design.”

Programming languages are about people!