
PL Notation is a Barrier to Entry
Research in programming languages offers powerful tools, but our systems of notation stymie outsiders. Can we change our notational approach and broaden our audience—without compromising on content?
Research in programming languages offers powerful tools, but our systems of notation stymie outsiders. Can we change our notational approach and broaden our audience—without compromising on content?
People of PL is a series of interviews with PL researchers. In today’s post, John Wickerson chats with Ron Garcia, who is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia.
From its beginning 15 years ago, gradual typing is now part of everyday development practice for massive code bases at companies from Facebook to Microsoft to Stripe to Dropbox, all of which have developed their own gradual type systems. In this post, we cover the goals of gradual typing, why it’s had such an impact already, and what remains to be accomplished.