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> This is a feature of several (mostly functional) programming languages This is just one of a common practice of programming, not a feature of functional lang

> This is a feature of several (mostly functional) programming languages This is just one of a common practice of programming, not a feature of functional languages. These practices are not even "reinventing the wheel". I mean, this is obvious in many areas: from implementing complex logics like Kubernetes to making hardware drivers in C. Programming languages themselves can't automagically ensure every single conditions because these often happen outside of the program (e.g. targeting hardware state). We need to cover and test all cases by hand anyway.

dfox 8y ago
This is one of the painfully obvious facts that tend to be totally ignored by most. Even if you formally verify all of you code it does not mean that you have covered all the possible states of the outside world. And this can mean both unexpected states on the outside and unexpected hardware failures. On one project I work with guy with significant railway signalling experience and this is one of the issues that I'm somewhat unable to explain to him. Probably because our product's design target is not to fail-fast-and-safe but fail-secure.