Show HN: A SQL database implemented purely in TypeScript type annotations

Re:Show HN: A SQL database implemented purely in TypeScript ... by DougBTX on Monday September 28, 2020 @09:50AM (#24616562)

At the end of the day, if you look at a low enough level in the stack, there are no types. In a very concrete way, types are a high-level idea, and if the high-level stops matching the low-level, then bugs crop up.

See for example Tetris implemented in Pokémon Yellow via runtime code injection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjm8P8utT5g

Their compiler missed that!

So I think there's good reason to switch from talking about types as "assumptions", and think of them as compile time "assertions". Something lower-level in the stack could break the high-level code, but that doesn't make the high-level code useless, just imperfect.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: A SQL database implemented purely in TypeScript ... by cjdell on Monday September 28, 2020 @09:58AM (#24616629)

I get what you're saying however even at the machine code level there is a difference between an i32 and an i64. Also the "sizeof" of a struct is important too when calculating how far to stride with regard to memory addresses.

Types can and do affect the way programs run at the lowest level. Perhaps someone with a better understanding of compiler theory can elaborate further on this...

[ Parent | on HN ]