chiffaa a day ago

People want sum types because sum types solve a large set of design problems, while being a concept old enough to appear back in SML in 1980s. One of the best phrased complaints I've seen against Go's design is a claim that Go language team ignored 30+ years of programming language design, because the language really seems to introduce design issues and footguns that were solved decades before work on it even started

Reply View 0 replies
pjmlp 2 days ago

Rust did not exist in 1976.

Reply View 2 replies
  • jen20 a day ago

    ML did, however (1973), and had..... sum types!

    Reply View 1 reply
    • pjmlp a day ago

      Yes, and still doesn't change the fact that Go messed up.

      Reply View 0 replies
jen20 a day ago

Sum types are not the same as the trivial example above. Sum types are actually useful, for one thing.

Reply View 2 replies
  • pjmlp a day ago

    No one is asking for sum types, what Pascal does would already be a huuuuge improvement.

    But I guess Go devs love to type their beloved boilerplate, it gives fuzzy feelings.

    Reply View 1 reply
    • jen20 a day ago

      It wouldn't move the needle at all except people looking to nitpick.

      And concretely, _I_ want Sum types in Go. I also want them in C# and every other language I might have to use.

      Reply View 0 replies