Re:Is Scala really more complicated than Java?
by plinkplonk on Friday September 18, 2009 @12:53PM
(#830611)
That is why I said formal type theory (which is very different from describing monads in the essays for the "general programming public").
Working through Pierce's book "Types And Programming Languages" (aka TAPL) is more what I had in mind. It is very clearly written and not that difficult(I have no formal Computer Science education and had no trouble with the book).
Monads aren't really very difficult when learned from the Type Theory perspective (vs from weird essays comparing them to elephants, space stations and so on).
I was specifically addressing this bit.
" but it is a headache to figure out _why_ it causes problems in the cases when type inference doesn't work as intended"
In my experience, knowing basic type theory helps this "figuring out" process.
'would make me pessimistic as to the efficacy of your advice.'
Fair Enough! I just posted what worked for me. YMMV :-)
Working through Pierce's book "Types And Programming Languages" (aka TAPL) is more what I had in mind. It is very clearly written and not that difficult(I have no formal Computer Science education and had no trouble with the book).
Monads aren't really very difficult when learned from the Type Theory perspective (vs from weird essays comparing them to elephants, space stations and so on).
I was specifically addressing this bit.
" but it is a headache to figure out _why_ it causes problems in the cases when type inference doesn't work as intended"
In my experience, knowing basic type theory helps this "figuring out" process.
'would make me pessimistic as to the efficacy of your advice.'
Fair Enough! I just posted what worked for me. YMMV :-)