alt Hacker NewsIt's funny how it went from "everything needs to be strongly typed" and "even C++ isn't enough we need Rust for everything" to this...
A good chunk of our profession is just hype-followers at this point.
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Type systems are orthogonal topic. I’d argue that the biggest hypers of AI are in the static types camp, because it allows them to iterate quickly and more safely than using dynamic types.
Yeah I described trends in software development is like the length of skirts. They both have the same logic behind the changes. But I don't consider type systems to be hype. I think they're frequently poorly implemented with a mathematically illiterate notation but they're so damn useful went done reasonably right
Most of my understanding on type systems comes from taking a course on the calculation of programs from the author of this book.
To be blunt, this course and the understanding this book gave me crystallized why I was unhappy with the current state of software development and it was one more nudge pushing me out of the field. I caution others that reading and understanding this book may change your understanding of the software development world enough that you don't want to be part of it either.
Programming in the 1990s: An Introduction to the Calculation of Programs | Springer Nature Link (formerly SpringerLink) https://share.google/K81ZlVTbfoR2oeYLh
Also, not just followers. There’s a kinda “merchant” behaviour too I think … signalling and trading in hype perspectives.
But to be fair, I’m not sure what the average dev/eng is supposed to do against a climate of regular change, many disparate opinionated groups with disparate tech stacks, and, IMO a pretty ~~pure~~ poor engineering culture of actually weighing the value of tech/methods against relevant constraints and trade offs.