Parsimony in Design

William Clinger writes in the introduction to the revisions to the Scheme programming language standards (my emphasis):

Programming languages should be designed not by piling feature on top of feature, but by removing the weaknesses and restrictions that make additional features appear necessary. Scheme demonstrates that a very small number of rules for forming expressions, with no restrictions on how they are composed, suffice to form a practical and efficient programming language that is flexible enough to support most of the major programming paradigms in use today.

It would be great to be able to similarly say:

Applications should be designed not by piling feature on top of feature, but by removing the weaknesses and restrictions that make additional features appear necessary. Rationale demonstrates that a small number of rules for forming structures, with minimal restrictions on how they are employed, suffice to form a practical and efficient application that is flexible enough to support most of the major decision-making paradigms in use today.

Step 2: Make it so!