3 ms·
> One of the big benefits of clojure being dynamic is that everything is data (e.g. a map, set, vector or list). What about this can't be done with types? Simp
by wtetzner 9y ago
> One of the big benefits of clojure being dynamic is that everything is data (e.g. a map, set, vector or list).
What about this can't be done with types? Simple parametric-polymorphism gets you pretty far. Row types allow you to handle "maps as records" in a type-safe way. The rest is just having support for some kind of ad-hoc polymorphism so that you can re-use your functions on that small set of types (type classes, ML-style functors, interfaces, protocols, etc.).
- joncampbelldev 9y agoAgain, I would refer you to the Rich Hickey talks, I'm not very eloquent on this. I think its about the manual overhead that constructing your hierarchy of types, plus the cognitive overhead of doing all the fancy things in your brackets. I'm familiar with the advantages of type systems (my progression was Java -> Haskell -> Idris) but I found my personal productivity (even in larger systems built in a team) was best in clojure. I didn't feel that the guarantees given to me by the type system were worth the mental overhead, a lot of people feel differently (you amongst them I'm guessing :p) As a closing point, if I were to ever build something that truly had to be Robust in a "someone will die if this goes even slightly wrong" way, I would reach straight for Idris and probably something like TLA+. However most of my development revolves around larger distributed systems communicating over wires, still resilient but in a different way. Mainly I use clojure.spec in core business logic and at the edges of my programs, for generative testing and ensuring that the data flowing through the system is sensible.