In a world of ever-expanding programming languages packed with features, the Gleam Programming Language takes a different path: it chooses to stay small, focused, and resolutely practical. This philosophy extends way beyond the language’s design itself, encompassing its tooling, ecosystem, and how Gleam itself is developed.

Being a truly open source project, free from corporate ownership, Gleam has to be really efficient with its resources: any new feature must justify its place, not just in terms of usefulness, but in terms of long-term maintenance.

In this talk, first delivered at the Ubuntu Summit, we’ll dive into the design of Gleam, its goals, and what goes into its development, 
By looking at examples, we’ll get a feel for Gleam, and what it looks like for a programming language to care about developer experience as one of its most important features.