Needed 1+1, built a functional programming language

This article describes a rapid evolution from a simple arithmetic-tree evaluator into a full language runtime in C, driven by the need to support variables, functions, closures, a garbage collector, and a custom memory allocator. For CIOs and technology leaders, the business takeaway is that even small tool-building efforts can quickly expand into foundational platform work, with significant implications for engineering scope, maintainability, and runtime performance; investing early in language/runtime architecture and memory management can prevent hidden technical debt as capabilities grow.