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Does APL Need a Type System? by Aaron W Hsu at #FnConf18

ConfEngine · talk · Watch on YouTube

Programming language designFunctional programming

What it is

Aaron Hsu's FnConf18 talk asks whether APL needs a static type system. He argues that APL's expressiveness and rapid iteration already deliver the benefits usually credited to types.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN points to it as the main argument from the array-language camp that types are unnecessary there, and as a nuanced take on typed versus untyped programming.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “To explain why, I recommend watching Aaron Hsu's videos on Dyalog APL”

    Nuanced take on whether APL needs a type system.

    kadblas, 2019-06 · Strong recommendation · in “Why I think Haskell is the best general purpose language as of June 22 2019”

  2. “which argues that APL already provides the development ergonomics that are typically acribed to type systems.”

    Argues APL already provides ergonomics usually attributed to type systems.

    xelxebar, 2019-10 · Recommendation · in “Dex: A research language for array processing in the Haskell/ML family”

  3. “I particularly like this one”

    Hsu talk on usability and scaling of APL.

    eggy, 2020-04 · Recommendation · in “Ode to J”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: apl, dyalog, type systems, array languages, functional programming

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