ParadigmsVsLibraries

Quora Answer : Is it possible to invent a new programming paradigm using an existing programming language?

Nov 5, 2018

I'm going to say "no".

But it kind of depends what you mean by "paradigm". And what you mean by "using".

You can obviously implement the compiler / interpreter / virtual machine for a language in a language of a different paradigm.

You can write a Prolog interpreter in C, or a C compiler in Prolog.

So if that's what you mean by "using", then you can.

But what I don't think you can do, is implement a new paradigm simply as a library for an existing language.

A paradigm shift involves some kind of fundamental changes : in flow of control, in data-representation, in other semantics. By definition, a "library" doesn't change these.