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Counterexamples in type systems (2021)
6 days ago
- The text lists 31 counterexamples in type systems, covering issues like polymorphic references, covariant containers, variance checking, and recursion.
- It includes topics such as object construction, Curry's paradox, runtime type misinformation, overloading, and subtyping vs. inheritance.
- Other points address selfishness, privacy violations, unstable expressions, avoidance problems, scope escape, and universal quantification.
- The collation is by Stephen Dolan, with acknowledgments to Andrej Bauer, Leo White, and Jeremy Yallop, and features a visual theme toggle.
Local Reasoning for Global Properties
5 days ago
- The author previously believed AI would not benefit from new programming languages, as AI can generate code in many existing languages.
- However, AI often generates good local code (e.g., functions) but struggles with global program understanding, leading to unnecessary defensive checks that can cause exponential state complexity.
- If AI's global reasoning weakness persists, programming language design may help by enforcing global properties through local reasoning, similar to Rust's data race prevention.
- Rust's ownership types and Send/Sync traits prevent data races statically, allowing local reasoning to ensure global data-race freedom without a new sublanguage.
- This demonstrates that programming languages can enforce surprising global properties (like data race freedom) with minimal burden on programmers.
- AI-generated code often includes excessive defensive checks, which are unnecessary, hurt performance, and mislead about program states, causing exponential state explosions.
- Future programming languages might incorporate features like effects systems to enforce more global properties, potentially benefiting AI code generation and human review.
- While not all global properties can be enforced, there is evidence that usable languages can provide more guarantees, changing incentives for language design in the AI era.
Odin, Wikipedia and Engagement Farming
2 days ago
- The Wikipedia article on the Odin programming language was deleted due to lack of notability and reliable sources, sparking controversy.
- GingerBill, Odin's creator, initially dismissed Wikipedia as an ideological playground gatekept by activists, but later expressed concern about its guidelines for programming languages.
- Casey Muratori argued that Wikipedia's sourcing rules are unfair to modern programming knowledge, which often lacks traditional academic coverage.
- Wikipedia's policies emphasize verifiability, reliable sources, and notability, with guidelines designed to maintain objectivity and avoid indiscriminate inclusion.
- GingerBill's contradictory behavior—claiming indifference while engaging extensively—suggests engagement farming and alignment with right-wing provocateurs he follows on Twitter.
- Analysis of Wikipedia editors involved in the deletion shows no evidence of ideological bias against Odin; they appear focused on general content moderation.
- The author criticizes GingerBill and Casey's clique for fostering a toxic, reactionary culture that prioritizes ego and spite over constructive discourse and software quality.
Returning to Zig
21 hours ago
- The author was initially drawn to Zig in 2020 as a promising replacement for C, appreciating its compile-time code execution and simple abstractions.
- They left Zig due to instability, frequent breaking changes, and an immature ecosystem, switching to Rust for its stability and strong tooling.
- Concerns about Rust's governance, including corporate influence and slow response to LLM-generated code policies, led the author to reconsider Zig.
- In 2026, Zig remains unstable but familiar, with added features like a package manager, though its ecosystem is still limited compared to others.
- Zig prioritizes simplicity over Rust-like memory safety, using release modes and testing to ensure safety, which the author finds acceptable for certain use cases.

Hasty Briefsbeta

#programming languages

Counterexamples in type systems (2021)

Local Reasoning for Global Properties

Odin, Wikipedia and Engagement Farming

Returning to Zig