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▲Death to Type Classesjappie.me
40 points by zeepthee 3 days ago | 23 comments
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SkiFire13 5 hours ago [-]
I feel like this article would be much more approachable if it didn't assume readers already know Ocaml and Haskell and their module system
nine_k 4 hours ago [-]
Indeed so, but that would require a few months worth of work from the reader, unfortunately.

(I have a t-shirt with a lambda in a circle, reminiscent of the anarchist emblem, and words "no class, no state". It's definitely possible to explain to a passer-by who never studied FP what it refers to, but not in such a way that the joke remained funny. Possibly the same deal is with the bumper sticker saying "my other car is cdr".)

codebje 4 hours ago [-]
"Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." - E. B. White.
DaiPlusPlus 2 hours ago [-]
> a lambda in a circle

How often do people think you're a Half-Life fan instead?

dagurp 50 minutes ago [-]
or Aphex Twin
fweimer 4 hours ago [-]
Haskell knowledge doesn't actually help because this isn't using the (very barebones) Haskell module system, but the Backpack extension: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...
nesarkvechnep 2 hours ago [-]
Yeah, it’s better to not assume anything and be stuck in the basics forever, right?
4ad 4 hours ago [-]
It would also be a useless article. It's fine to write for an audience, if you're not in the target audience, move on.
Vosporos 3 hours ago [-]
It's okay not to know things
actionfromafar 4 hours ago [-]
Yeah... meanwhile, in lesser languages, type classes is all we have.
indigoabstract 2 hours ago [-]
Delightfully weird and niche article.

And I wouldn't be surprised if there were more retired left handed surgeons in their 50s living in rural Switzerland than people who understand what he's talking about.

b_e_n_t_o_n 3 hours ago [-]

   if err !== nil {
      return err
   }
ioasuncvinvaer 2 hours ago [-]
How does this compose iterators?
test6554 4 hours ago [-]
I just picture Charlie from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” connecting the dots.
semiinfinitely 3 hours ago [-]
even for someone moderately interested in FP, this one goes above my head and the only take-away I can get from it is "maybe use ocaml instead of haskell"
12_throw_away 3 hours ago [-]
"Functors" "Monads" "Typeclasses" <- concepts dreamed up by the utterly deranged
steve_gh 2 hours ago [-]
There is a really interesting interview with Simon Peyton-Jones referenced on HN yesterday.He talks a lot about why Haskell came about, and some of the thinking behind the design choices that were made.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45242530

skrebbel 2 hours ago [-]
It's okay not to know things
professor_v 2 hours ago [-]
"A monad is just a monoid in the category of endofunctors"
dist-epoch 1 hours ago [-]
I heard it's just like a burrito.
williamcotton 15 minutes ago [-]
A Burrito is a Monad:

https://williamcotton.com/articles/a-burrito-is-a-monad

WJW 1 hours ago [-]
Burrito's compose surprisingly well.
DaiPlusPlus 2 hours ago [-]
"Hello I would like x<-[1,2..] apples please"