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Why GADTs matter for performance (2015)

(blog.janestreet.com)
83 points hyperbrainer | 3 comments | 10 May 25 13:55 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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goldchainposse ◴[12 May 25 19:17 UTC] No.43966573[source]▶
I know Jane Street love OCaml, but you have to wonder how much it's cost them in velocity and maintenance. This is a quant firm blogging about a programming language they're the most famous user of.
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1. fjwufjfa ◴[13 May 25 00:05 UTC] No.43968597[source]▶
It's easier to reason in FP plus the python paradox [1] [2].

[1]: https://www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html

[2]: https://blog.janestreet.com/why-ocaml/

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2. codr7 ◴[13 May 25 01:47 UTC] No.43969039[source]▶
For certain classes of programs, yes. I have a hunch finance is a pretty good fit.
3. AdieuToLogic ◴[13 May 25 02:47 UTC] No.43969276[source]▶
I agree with your point about reasoning when employing Functional Programming (FP).

However, I very much disagree with Graham's 2004 assertion[0]:

  It's a lot of work to learn a new programming language. And 
  people don't learn Python because it will get them a job; 
  they learn it because they genuinely like to program and 
  aren't satisfied with the languages they already know.
It does not require "a lot of work to learn a new programming language" once a person has fluency with at least one. Actually, the difficulty of learning a new programming language is inversely proportional to how many programming languages the person has already learned. Especially if a new programming language is in the same paradigm category as those already known (Procedural, OOP, FP, etc.).

I was a professional software engineer in 2004, when the Graham post was written. To say, "people don't learn Python because it will get them a job ..." was bullshit then just as it is now. The remainder of the quoted sentence is unfounded extrapolation and has the value of same.

0 - https://www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html