Recent submissions

Comment · 8 years ago
This is exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!
Comment · 8 years ago
Comment · 8 years ago
This. Thank you. I'm being rate limited, so this is the only post I'll be making on this thread. My question was genuine. I want to learn both the positives and the pitfalls of dependent types. I mimicked the book's description because it amused me from a linguistic perspective. Looking back, I probably should have phrased it differently.
Comment · 8 years ago
You just described two errors that do actually happen and in the next sentence say those errors can't happen anymore. What am I missing here?
Comment · 8 years ago
> An introduction to dependent types, demonstrating the most beautiful aspects, one step at a time.

Is there a companion book detailing the ugly downsides of dependent types and how to avoid them, one step at a time?

Comment · 8 years ago
> why do folks completely avoid a language for a single relatively bland syntactic feature?

Personal preference isn't a good enough reason?

I don't like white space sensitive languages because I've seen what happens in python when somebody accidentally adds a couple of lines formatted with spaces into a file formatted with tabs. I've seen git and svn mangle tabs. Long blocks are harder to track. Refactoring functions and nested ifs are much harder to keep track of. If you somehow lose all of the formatting in a block or a file, it's much more difficult to recreate the code if the only block delimiters are whitespace.

Essentially, white space delimiters are just one more thing that can go wrong and ruin my day. I try to keep those to a minimum. That said, Nim is my new go to for short scripts. I wouldn't write anything large in it for the reasons mentioned above.

Comment · 8 years ago
Comment · 8 years ago
Embedded development.
Comment · 8 years ago
This video does a great job of explaining why modern programming in general has failed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZgbKrDEzAs

I think OOP specifically derailed programming because of how big it was, how fast it took over and how long it was considered to be the one true programming paradigm. When OOP hit, it hit hard and fast. It wasn't long before colleges were teaching OOP as The One True Way To Program. Every employer required knowledge of OOP before they would interview you. And I mean every employer, from startups to corporate enterprise. And once it took hold, it took people (and me!) 10-20 years to realize the OOP emperor had no clothes on.

I still don't understand why or how it got so big so quickly. All I can figure is that the software industry as a whole pays attention to the wrong people.

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