Top all-time · #2259
Sententia cdsmithus
Personal blog · cdsmith.wordpress.comprogrammingwriting
Sententia cdsmithus is a personal blog at cdsmith.wordpress.com about programming and writing. Since 2007, 34 different Hacker News readers have linked it 46 times, most often “What to Know Before Debating Type Systems (2008)”. The last post was in 2018, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (11) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Chris Smith's blog mainly for 'What To Know Before Debating Type Systems', which commenters use to untangle static versus strong typing. Other comments point to his posts on teaching kids Haskell.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 11 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
software, programming languages, and other ideas
Most-linked posts?
- What to Know Before Debating Type Systems (2008)11 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2013-01-19
- Why Do Monads Matter? (2012)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-10-29
- An Old Article I Wrote: "What To Know Before Debating Type Systems"2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-01-11
What Hacker News says?
"Having tried both, I've found that the ML-derived languages tend to have a stronger type system that's more rigorously enforced at compile time. I personally find this much more valuable in practice than some of the dynamic magic that you can do with lisp." You probably meant to contrast ML's static typing (not strong typing) with Lisps's dynamic typing. See "What To Know Before Debating Type Systems" : https://cds…
Comment linking /2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/
on “Alan Kay on Lisp”Submitted What to Know Before Debating Type Systems (2008) as a story · 190 points
HN discussionI think you might be thinking of https://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wr... It says: > I give the following general definitions for strong and weak typing, at least when used as absolutes: > Strong typing: A type system that I like and feel comfortable with > Weak typing: A type system that worries me, or makes me feel uncomfortable
Comment linking /2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/
on “Use Your Type System”Submitted Haskell’s Niche: Hard Problems as a story · 80 points
HN discussionYour point about class definitions being frozen is apt — but much of the nomenclature you're using to describe languages is meaningless. Please read the classic What To Know Before Debating Type Systems : http://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wro...
Comment linking /2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/
on “These are things in PHP which make me sad”Submitted An Old Article I Wrote: "What To Know Before Debating Type Systems" as a story · 38 points
HN discussionYou probably mean statically typed, not strongly typed. The distinction is clarified in "What To Know Before Debating Type Systems" : https://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wr...
Comment linking /2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/
on “Why Go is my favorite programming language”Submitted Why Do Monads Matter? as a story · 14 points
HN discussionThose interested in this subject might also enjoy What To Know Before Debating Type Systems : https://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wr... It’s one of those older articles where not everyone will agree with everything, but there’s still a lot of insight and food for thought.
Comment linking /2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/
on “Typing Is Hard”Submitted Haskell For Kids as a story · 11 points
HN discussion> Some people like more restrictive languages, because they don’t trust others or themselves to reliably use good discretion in the use of powerful features For me, it's not even that. It's that I've discovered that, even when used with discretion, the simple presence of powerful features still makes it harder to reason about how things work. Discretion around powerful features isn't a one-and-done thing; it's an on…
Comment linking /2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/
on “REST vs. GraphQL – A search for evidence on which is better”Submitted Big Ideas for Haskell as a story · 6 points
HN discussionI'm not sure the fact that kids can "learn" language X proves much, because generally we're teaching kids language X so they can take some kid-friendly subset of the language and do kid projects in it. This is great on its own, but showing that kids can learn Scala or Haskell doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be able to program in it. Here's a group using Haskell: http://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/09/03…
Comment linking /2011/09/03/haskell-for-kids-week-3/
on “Scala use is less good than Java use for at least half of all Java projects”Submitted What to Know Before Debating Type Systems as a story · 4 points
HN discussionTerrific idea, force them to answer a question too before continuing. Another good test would be for 'strong' or 'weak' typing, linking to this: http://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wro...
Comment linking /2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/
on “GPU Password Cracking”Submitted "Industry-Driven" Computer Science Education as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSomewhat related: Chris Smith is teaching kids programming using a tiny subset of Haskell, the Gloss graphics library, and a web framework that he built around Gloss, using the SafeHaskell extension. His experiences can be followed through his blog. Previous posts: http://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/haskell-for-kids-wee... http://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/haskell-for-kids-wee... http://cdsmith.wordpress.…
Comment linking /2011/09/10/haskell-for-kids-week-4/
on “Teach our kids to code”Submitted Iteratees Step By Step as a story · 4 points
HN discussionhttps://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/haskell-for-kids-we... Books like The Haskell School of Expression have been teaching functional programming using simple graphics in Haskell for a long time. Need I remind you that the entire concept of a Turtle comes from Logo, which is Lisp minus parentheses?
Comment linking /2011/08/16/haskell-for-kids-week-1/
on “Python has brought computer programming to a vast new audience”Submitted Catching a Mathematical Error Using Haskell’s Type System as a story · 4 points
HN discussionLame article, read this instead: https://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wr...
Comment linking /2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/
on “It Is Not the Types That Will Help You”Submitted The "X Improves My Design Anyway" Myth as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted An Old Article I Wrote: What to Know Before Debating Type Systems as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted What to Know Before Debating Type Systems as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Do Monads Matter? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Do Monads Matter? (2012) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted CodeWorld Rises Again as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What To Know When Debating Type Systems as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 37 Reasons to Love Haskell (playing off the Ruby article) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Static or Dynamic Typing? as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
