I feel like this article would be much more approachable if it didn't assume readers already know Ocaml and Haskell and their module system

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nine_k a day ago | parent | next [-]

Indeed so, but that would require a few months worth of work from the reader, unfortunately.

(I have a t-shirt with a lambda in a circle, reminiscent of the anarchist emblem, and words "no class, no state". It's definitely possible to explain to a passer-by who never studied FP what it refers to, but not in such a way that the joke remained funny. Possibly the same deal is with the bumper sticker saying "my other car is cdr".)

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codebje a day ago | parent | next [-]

"Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." - E. B. White.

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tmtvl a day ago | parent | next [-]

Unexplained humour dies over time. Think of the classic 'a dog walks into an inn and says "I think I'll open the other one"'.

	▲	snackbroken 21 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Some observational humor is timeless. Consider this entry from the same collection of Sumerian proverbs: "The dog understands 'Take it!', but it does not understand 'Put it down!'"[0] later repopularized as "No Take, Only Throw"[1]. [0] https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/proverbs/t.6.1.05.html#t6105.p... [1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/no-take-only-throw

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Supermancho a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Contemporary rephrasing: "<InsertSubject> can be dissected, like a frog. It turns out that nobody is very interested and the frog dies of it."

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DaiPlusPlus a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> a lambda in a circle

How often do people think you're a Half-Life fan instead?

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nine_k a day ago | parent | next [-]

Likely never. The Half-Life has the lambda with the top crooked, neatly inscribed in a circle [1]. The anarchist version has everything straight, and with the three sticks protruding out of the circle (like the A would). The visual rhyme is obvious.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Freeman#/media/File:Gor...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_symbolism#/media/Fil...

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dagurp a day ago | parent | prev [-]

or Aphex Twin

	▲	tialaramex a day ago \| parent [-]
		The CS understanding of "No class, no state" is just about at the edge of something Aphex Twin might care about. But the stylized A really isn't that similar to a Lambda

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fweimer a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Haskell knowledge doesn't actually help because this isn't using the (very barebones) Haskell module system, but the Backpack extension: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...

	▲	chombier a day ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks, I scanned through all the comments/links but this is the actual resource one wants to read to get familiar with Backpack.

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nesarkvechnep a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah, it’s better to not assume anything and be stuck in the basics forever, right?

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4ad a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It would also be a useless article. It's fine to write for an audience, if you're not in the target audience, move on.

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Vosporos a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's okay not to know things

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whateveracct a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Uh so? There's a lot of value in articles that don't rehash the basics for the noob reader.

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actionfromafar a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah... meanwhile, in lesser languages, type classes is all we have.