Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
1–10 of 98 posts
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#2Related discussion from last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11992773.
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#3I continue to be believe even as a static typing fan that static types are fundamentally incompatible with OTP and it's goals.
Distributed systems just seem to too thorny for static types to subjugate/bend to their will.
Sure, you can declare global invariants ahead of time that your cluster must uphold, but it's a bit less "distributed" in a real sense then
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#4Really hoping this project gets more traction.
I'm learning Elm now and I'm really liking the syntax to the level that other languages feel rather cluttered to me now.
The more I'm playing with types and learning to leverage them, the more I appreciate their power (yes, I'm late to the game) so making this statically typed is very interesting.
However, there seem to be a saturation of new languages and not sure if there is enough eyeballs left for a new language that does not have a large corporate backing (FB, Google, Apple) or happens not to arrive on a perfect time with the right set of answers. Maybe BEAM, ML/Elm syntax and static typing is what everyone else is looking for.
Edit: Video posted today of creator of Alpaca (Jeremy Pierre) giving a talk at Erlang Factory. It gives a nice overview of the state of the language -
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#5I continue to be believe even as a static typing fan that static types are fundamentally incompatible with OTP and it's goals. Distributed systems just seem to too thorny for static types to subjugate/bend to their will. Sure, you can declare global invariants ahead of time that your cluster must uphold, but it's a bit less "distributed" in a real sense then
I tend to agree with you. Message passing and static types don't mesh unless there is some type of contract between the sender and receiver. It would be a nightmare.
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#6I continue to be believe even as a static typing fan that static types are fundamentally incompatible with OTP and it's goals. Distributed systems just seem to too thorny for static types to subjugate/bend to their will. Sure, you can declare global invariants ahead of time that your cluster must uphold, but it's a bit less "distributed" in a real sense then
Would you mind elaborating, or sharing some papers on the subject? I'm particularly interested in a dialect of ReasonML that would use the BuckleScript compiler + ConcurrentML but target the BEAM VM, and I'd love to know how bad of an idea it might be. Maybe because it lacks e.g. session types it's hopeless, but I'm not sure.
So, would love to hear specifics!
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#7Really hoping this project gets more traction. I'm learning Elm now and I'm really liking the syntax to the level that other languages feel rather cluttered to me now. The more I'm playing with types and learning to leverage them, the more I appreciate their power (yes, I'm late to the game) so making this statically typed is very interesting. However, there seem to be a saturation of new languages and not sure if th…
> enough eyeballs left for a new language that does not have a large corporate backing
It's a solid point if the goal is winner-take-all style competitive victory. But I'm not sure software should co-op SV-startup-business exponential growth-or-die mindset. What happened to hacker culture? Are open source developers corporatist now?
/end-speculative-rant
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#8Really hoping this project gets more traction. I'm learning Elm now and I'm really liking the syntax to the level that other languages feel rather cluttered to me now. The more I'm playing with types and learning to leverage them, the more I appreciate their power (yes, I'm late to the game) so making this statically typed is very interesting. However, there seem to be a saturation of new languages and not sure if th…
> enough eyeballs left for a new language that does not have a large corporate backing It's a solid point if the goal is winner-take-all style competitive victory. But I'm not sure software should co-op SV-startup-business exponential growth-or-die mindset. What happened to hacker culture? Are open source developers corporatist now? /end-speculative-rant
Open source is massively corporatist. Developers working for $0 to create tool chains that other developers spend their weekend learning so that the shareholders of their employers can increase their wealth.
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#9Really hoping this project gets more traction. I'm learning Elm now and I'm really liking the syntax to the level that other languages feel rather cluttered to me now. The more I'm playing with types and learning to leverage them, the more I appreciate their power (yes, I'm late to the game) so making this statically typed is very interesting. However, there seem to be a saturation of new languages and not sure if th…
> enough eyeballs left for a new language that does not have a large corporate backing It's a solid point if the goal is winner-take-all style competitive victory. But I'm not sure software should co-op SV-startup-business exponential growth-or-die mindset. What happened to hacker culture? Are open source developers corporatist now? /end-speculative-rant
There does seem to be a significant push to contribute to open-source at many large companies. Having money and people contributing as part (or all) of their day job can be quite a boon for projects.
I agree with the premise of your point, though.
Re: Alpaca – Functional programming inspired by ML for the Erlang VM
#10>Apache License, Version 2.0
Pardon my ignorance, but why not make it MIT and completely avoid any licensing issues?