merijnv

30 ms·

241.
by merijnv 16y ago
Why would I need to know the implementation and how it processes data? The entire point of pure functions is that you don't need to know. Referential transparency guarantees that a pure function given inputs X and Y always returns the same
242.
by merijnv 16y ago
Better yet, use the help() function instead, which also displays the docstrings for said object and functions (assuming the programmer gave those, which fortunately holds for the entire stdlib).
243.
by merijnv 16y ago
Why? Because the definition of state-of-the-art OS is one with a useless Aero/Compiz/whatever 3d graphics Hollywood feel? IMO, the most exciting OS stuff is far from visible in the UI, let alone screenshots...
244.
by merijnv 16y ago
Isn't Inferno just the continuation/successor of Plan9? That's what I always thought anyway...
245.
by merijnv 16y ago
> The type system gets in your way I think that anyone saying this suffers from a fundamental misunderstanding of how to use a type system like Haskell's. I encounter it often with people coming from C/Python who start writing typeclass
246.
by merijnv 16y ago
As of yet I'm a student (nearly finished with my masters in CS), so most of my work is either research related code or things I write in my spare time. I mostly fund my activities from my part-time sys admin job (which is rather low intensi
247.
by merijnv 16y ago
Well, HN seems to also attract a lot of people like me who just want to hack, entrepreneurial nonsense be damned. And I will gladly make my software free and "throw away" all the profit I could make, because I believe I am contributing to a
248.
by merijnv 16y ago
Uh...OSX just uses gcc as a C compiler and all the Apple specific changes are open source as well (GPL license and all that), so what's stopping me from just distributing a binary (Apple patched) gcc?
249.
by merijnv 16y ago
Personally I use "we" in scientific writing mostly because its a convenient neutral way of addressing your reader. Referring to the reader directly with "you" can be jarring or to informal.
250.
by merijnv 16y ago
Well, to be fair the easiest captcha's are easy high school level equations and (as someone else already pointed out) if you can't solve these you have no business obtaining an account for extremely high quality quantum random numbers. (I b
251.
by merijnv 16y ago
(I think) you're starting with the flawed assumption of what "the" stack is, while functional languages like Haskell have a stack, it is very different from the stack as you may now it in C, so the optimization issues are different too. The
252.
by merijnv 16y ago
I agree that it is hard to get GHC produce the assembly you want, but I think this is unfair to "blame" GHC for this. In my eyes Haskell is mostly a high-level language and if you worry about the assembler produced I think we have left high
253.
by merijnv 16y ago
Yes, it is on FreeNode. Which is (in my opinion) to other IRC networks what HN is to other link aggregators.
254.
by merijnv 16y ago
Unlikely, intuionist and classical logic are not fundamentally different. The only difference is that the law of excluded middle (A or (not A)) is an axiom (i.e. assumed to be true) in classical logic.
255.
by merijnv 16y ago
I'm not an AI student myself (I do CS, but with an interest in AI and probabilistic algorithms) and since I'm from a younger generation most of the "new" AI stuff like neural networks, evolutionary computing, etc. wasn't that new any more
256.
by merijnv 16y ago
I used to agree with you, the "old" IRC nets are full of rude, mean and cruel people. But FreeNode is an excellent place for programming. I have the most experience in the python, haskell and freebsd channels and the people there are exce
257.
by merijnv 16y ago
Do you have a source for this? As far as I am aware your brain mostly burns glucose like the rest of your body. Admittedly glucose is also a sugar, but in the context of this talk sugar refers to sucrose (i.e. the white stuff you put in tea
258.
by merijnv 16y ago
Fructose is actually poison (not in the sense of "you die now", but in the long term alcohol sense) with almost no energy benefit. The high fructose corn syrup and sucrose (50% fructose, 50% glucose) used in most candy are remarkably ineffi
259.
by merijnv 16y ago
Don't fix what ain't broke. The more I grok Haskell the more I believe its not only a solid functional language but also my favorite imperative language... Based on what usage/performance you expect you could maybe take a different approach
260.
by merijnv 16y ago
The short version of the explanation is: Haskell's forkIO uses green threads, which means you can have thousands (or even 100k+ if they are mostly blocking on IO). Haskell's runtime and green thread scheduler (at least those shipped with GH
261.
by merijnv 16y ago
As a (poor!) Computer Science student I want to give you much props for making a free version available. Just skimmed through a bit and the text seems very readable (good citations too). Hopefully this will finally help me close the gap bet
262.
by merijnv 16y ago
It's already been done, Eric Meyer already wrote '"Considered harmful" essays considered harmful': http://meyerweb.com/eric/comment/chech.html
263.
by merijnv 16y ago
This is of course a case of the True Scotsman fallacy, because the author can argue (following the posts logic): - Good programmers are stuck spending most of their time on - tools they hate. - You do not spend most time on a tool you hate.
264.
by merijnv 16y ago
> Also, "Sound philosophy demanded that these mathematical concepts be tested by evidence, logic and rigor from some very basic premises that were built up to more complex and powerful structures of thought which were proved to be true.
265.
by merijnv 16y ago
> My main problem with Java isn't the language itself. I think it's a pretty ok language as far as statically typed ones go. Really? Which statically typed languages have you written in? I think Java (together with C and C++, lets not l
266.
by merijnv 16y ago
Of course this can only happen if said project is based in a country which actually upholds software patents. In countries were software patents are void MPEG-LA's claims are also void in which case I'd like to see them try to sue the devel
267.
by merijnv 16y ago
I think the point is to discover new information, but by restricting the set to prevent only seeing the lowest common denominator. This is something I've wished for many times. There are lots of items and people on HN I find interesting, ho
268.
by merijnv 16y ago
You are correct in the sense that the language isn't Turing complete to guarantee that the language is strongly terminating. The language being strongly terminating means that 1) there is a Normal Form for the type of an expression and 2) t
269.
by merijnv 16y ago
I agree that this won't solve all bugs, maybe not even the majority. But I am convinced it solves a significant amount of bugs. Personally I find that an expressive type system can aid significantly in discovering your own misconceptions an
270.
by merijnv 16y ago
I agree that this is only true when the language is given a strong enough type and that giving such a type may be to cumbersome. In fact languages that can do most of these things already exist (Coq and Agda for example) but they are indeed

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