4 ms·
Dear FP evangelists - Here’s how to sell the unwashed masses on FP: 1. Shut up about monads. “Monads” sound like a bad D&D monster. No one cares about either o
by stevenalowe 7y ago
Dear FP evangelists -
Here’s how to sell the unwashed masses on FP:
1. Shut up about monads. “Monads” sound like a bad D&D monster. No one cares about either of those things
2. Benefits sell, not mechanisms. Show me the benefits in a way that solves my problem without warping my brain around in the process, and I’ll buy it.
3. Every new paradigm has a ‘gap’ that must be overcome, a proverbial “click” of a new brain-circuit forming, before understanding/enlightenment is possible. This process is accelerated by direct experience, but slowed glacially by overly formal abstract presentations
4. Stop trying to show me how hip/smart/woke/l33t you are by spouting FPisms; that impresses no one, bores most, and makes you look like a poseur. Benefits, McCoy.
5. I love Scala, but it’s an acquired taste that didn’t happen overnight, and it started as a non-threatening “better Java” path that led to self discovery through refactoring. Please Give us space to breathe and languages that don’t cause Calculus 101 PTSD flashbacks.
- quickthrower2 7y agoThe space to breath argument is interesting. I like Elm because there is no room to “breath” in the sense you can’t do all the bad old JS stuff. That’s what makes it useful: Guarantees. In other words way fewer bugs where something weird happens and no one can fix it.
- nextos 7y agoScala is great because it's multiparadigm. There are few languages that can accomplish that quite elegantly, and with types! Another one is Alice ML.