Deciding the type of a custom langauge
I am thinking about small language specifically for graphs that would provide a lot of functionality to manipulate graphs and the like. 

So when I was pondering over the syntax of the language, I read about the functional and the 'obvious' imperative paradigm. How does one decide what kind of a language style would be better? Which one would suit my use case better? I would appreciate answers with some good reasons and explanations.
Deciding the type of a custom langauge
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I am thinking about small language specifically for graphs that would provide a lot of functionality to manipulate graphs and the like. 

So when I was pondering over the syntax of the language, I read about the functional and the 'obvious' imperative paradigm. How does one decide what kind of a language style would be better? Which one would suit my use case better? I would appreciate answers with some good reasons and explanations.