5 ms·

I remember reading this article when it was published, it seems like everything said continues to be true about Elm, so much that I don't hear about anyone usin

I remember reading this article when it was published, it seems like everything said continues to be true about Elm, so much that I don't hear about anyone using Elm these days, as even those who have used it as legacy code have now largely had enough time to migrate away.

benatkin 2y ago
One of the core team members mentioned in the article showed up on HN a couple weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42935516 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42935516
- satvikpendem 2y ago
  Can you link to the comment specifically? This is just a link to the submission itself.
  - Philpax 2y ago
    Presumably https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42954103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42954103, which does not really concern Elm.
    - benatkin 2y ago
      He’s the author of the article but only chimes in once. Sorry for not linking it, just wasn’t sure I wanted a Google Alert, but it seems likely at this point and I don’t mind. I’m somewhat undecided about Elm and Roc. Both are at least innovative.
      - satvikpendem 2y ago
        Not sure what you mean by Google Alert, what is that regarding?
        benatkin 2y ago
        A Google Alert notifies when a search term, such as someone's name, appears online, so mentioning someone in a public comment might trigger an alert, causing them to notice it.
        satvikpendem 2y ago
        I see what you mean, that's probably pretty unlikely though as the vast majority of people, even developers or leads, don't set up Google Alerts.
  - benatkin 2y ago
    The “his comment” link here for this article: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/why-im-leaving-elm/#forkability https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/why-im-leaving-elm/#forka... In the HN submission I linked, the author of the article is the same.
    - satvikpendem 2y ago
      Now I understand, the author is (or was, I suppose) a core team member of Elm, I thought it were someone that commented on the post instead. I interpret "showed up on HN" to typically mean a commenter rather than an article author as typically many authors don't even realize their article was submitted to HN on any particular day.
  - vosper 2y ago
    The person in question (Richard Feldman) is the creator of Roc, which the linked article is about. He also shows up in the comments here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42954103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42954103
- lolinder 2y ago
  Assuming that you're talking about Richard Feldman, he shows up regularly but not to talk about Elm—Roc is his new project, which is inspired by Elm but not trying to target the same niche.
  - catgary 2y ago
    I kind of wish the effort spent on Roc was put into productionizing/commercializing Koka (which Roc draws a lot of inspiration from) rather than starting an entirely new language. Like I get starting from scratch when it comes to Haskell, since there’s so much baggage there, but Koka is a pretty blank slate.
    - lolinder 2y ago
      Koka is still pretty much one person's project [0], and it's not for lack of PRs [1]. To push Koka forward at the kind of pace that Richard wants to move would require forking it or commandeering it, and it makes total sense that neither option is as appealing as just starting fresh. [0] https://github.com/koka-lang/koka/graphs/contributors https://github.com/koka-lang/koka/graphs/contributors [1] https://github.com/koka-lang/koka/graphs/contributors https://github.com/koka-lang/koka/graphs/contributors
      - IshKebab 2y ago
        I think your second link meant to go to the open PRs... but anyway there are only 30 open PRs? That seems relatively low?
        lolinder 2y ago
        Oh, yes, I pasted the same link twice! 30 PRs that have been open for a very long time untouched. The point is getting stuff merged into Koka is not easy.
evmar 2y ago
I don't really follow Elm, but I was curious and tried to see whether the project is still alive. It appears the last commits on GitHub are from mid 2024 and the last installable release was 2019. It appears the main developer is working on a new thing? There's definitely a "the bear is sticky with honey" confusion of discussion over whether it's dead or not. It would be nice for interested strangers like me if they could make some sort of clear statement on it.
- GiorgioG 2y ago
  It's dead, maybe it just doesn't know it yet.
  - FullGarden_S 2y ago
    No, its not. They are focused on introducing ELM on the backend as well. ELM isn't backed by big corpos like Rust and Go do so their way of operation will differ by a huge margin than those two langs, especially in terms of marketing so its inaccurate to judge that its dead just due to the inactivity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SUM4869ODc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SUM4869ODc
    - santoshalper 2y ago
      Dead means different things to different people, but there is no way in hell I'd start a new project using a niche language that hasn't been updated in almost a year.
      - FullGarden_S 2y ago
        I see. I would though. ELM has a very simple, straight forward syntax and everything revolves around the ELM architecture, which makes the whole thing very intuitive. I believe a statically typed and functional language will do just fine without any update for years as long as the initial implementation is done right. Unless there is a need to add some new feature, there is not point in updating the language if all the essentials were well implemented already. ELM compiles to JS and not to a native architecture. It'd be inappropriate to view ELM like one would view languages like C or any that uses LLVM as its backend.

benatkin 2y ago

One of the core team members mentioned in the article showed up on HN a couple weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42935516 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42935516

satvikpendem 2y ago
Can you link to the comment specifically? This is just a link to the submission itself.
- Philpax 2y ago
  Presumably https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42954103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42954103, which does not really concern Elm.
  - benatkin 2y ago
    He’s the author of the article but only chimes in once. Sorry for not linking it, just wasn’t sure I wanted a Google Alert, but it seems likely at this point and I don’t mind. I’m somewhat undecided about Elm and Roc. Both are at least innovative.
    - satvikpendem 2y ago
      Not sure what you mean by Google Alert, what is that regarding?
      - benatkin 2y ago
        A Google Alert notifies when a search term, such as someone's name, appears online, so mentioning someone in a public comment might trigger an alert, causing them to notice it.
        satvikpendem 2y ago
        I see what you mean, that's probably pretty unlikely though as the vast majority of people, even developers or leads, don't set up Google Alerts.
- benatkin 2y ago
  The “his comment” link here for this article: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/why-im-leaving-elm/#forkability https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/why-im-leaving-elm/#forka... In the HN submission I linked, the author of the article is the same.
  - satvikpendem 2y ago
    Now I understand, the author is (or was, I suppose) a core team member of Elm, I thought it were someone that commented on the post instead. I interpret "showed up on HN" to typically mean a commenter rather than an article author as typically many authors don't even realize their article was submitted to HN on any particular day.
- vosper 2y ago
  The person in question (Richard Feldman) is the creator of Roc, which the linked article is about. He also shows up in the comments here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42954103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42954103
lolinder 2y ago
Assuming that you're talking about Richard Feldman, he shows up regularly but not to talk about Elm—Roc is his new project, which is inspired by Elm but not trying to target the same niche.
- catgary 2y ago
  I kind of wish the effort spent on Roc was put into productionizing/commercializing Koka (which Roc draws a lot of inspiration from) rather than starting an entirely new language. Like I get starting from scratch when it comes to Haskell, since there’s so much baggage there, but Koka is a pretty blank slate.
  - lolinder 2y ago
    Koka is still pretty much one person's project [0], and it's not for lack of PRs [1]. To push Koka forward at the kind of pace that Richard wants to move would require forking it or commandeering it, and it makes total sense that neither option is as appealing as just starting fresh. [0] https://github.com/koka-lang/koka/graphs/contributors https://github.com/koka-lang/koka/graphs/contributors [1] https://github.com/koka-lang/koka/graphs/contributors https://github.com/koka-lang/koka/graphs/contributors
    - IshKebab 2y ago
      I think your second link meant to go to the open PRs... but anyway there are only 30 open PRs? That seems relatively low?
      - lolinder 2y ago
        Oh, yes, I pasted the same link twice! 30 PRs that have been open for a very long time untouched. The point is getting stuff merged into Koka is not easy.

evmar 2y ago

I don't really follow Elm, but I was curious and tried to see whether the project is still alive. It appears the last commits on GitHub are from mid 2024 and the last installable release was 2019. It appears the main developer is working on a new thing? There's definitely a "the bear is sticky with honey" confusion of discussion over whether it's dead or not. It would be nice for interested strangers like me if they could make some sort of clear statement on it.

GiorgioG 2y ago
It's dead, maybe it just doesn't know it yet.
- FullGarden_S 2y ago
  No, its not. They are focused on introducing ELM on the backend as well. ELM isn't backed by big corpos like Rust and Go do so their way of operation will differ by a huge margin than those two langs, especially in terms of marketing so its inaccurate to judge that its dead just due to the inactivity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SUM4869ODc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SUM4869ODc
  - santoshalper 2y ago
    Dead means different things to different people, but there is no way in hell I'd start a new project using a niche language that hasn't been updated in almost a year.
    - FullGarden_S 2y ago
      I see. I would though. ELM has a very simple, straight forward syntax and everything revolves around the ELM architecture, which makes the whole thing very intuitive. I believe a statically typed and functional language will do just fine without any update for years as long as the initial implementation is done right. Unless there is a need to add some new feature, there is not point in updating the language if all the essentials were well implemented already. ELM compiles to JS and not to a native architecture. It'd be inappropriate to view ELM like one would view languages like C or any that uses LLVM as its backend.