Pattern matching is so powerful that Elixir's docs introduce it before conditionals! https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/pattern-matching.html
miniblog.
Related Posts
Solving Fizzbuzz using Euler's totient theorem rather than conditionals:
Solving Fizzbuzz using Euler's totient theorem rather than conditionals: https://philcrissman.net/posts/eulers-fizzbuzz/
Creating a new PL is so different from changing an existing one.
You need to worry about syntax, locals, scope, error checking, conditionals, interpreter loop, stdlib etc. You can work on these in isolation once you have a working implementation.
(My toy PL now does fizzbuzz!)