Last week, we looked at the unfortunately-unexplored topic of Scala/Java joint compilation. Specifically, we saw several different ways in which this functionality may be invoked covering a number of different tools. Among these tools was Buildr, a fast Ruby-based drop-in replacement for Maven with a penchant for simple configuration. In the article I mentioned that [...]
One of the features that the Groovy people like to flaunt is the joint compilation of .groovy and .java files. This is a fantastically powerful concept which (among other things) allows for circular dependencies between Java, Groovy and back again. Thus, you can have a Groovy class which extends a Java class which in turn [...]
Anyone who has taken even a cursory glance at the vast menagerie of programming languages should have at least heard the phrase “Hindley-Milner”. F#, one of the most promising languages ever to emerge from the forbidding depths of Microsoft Research, makes use of this mysterious algorithm, as do Haskell, OCaml and ML before it. There [...]
Doesn’t that title just get the blood pumping? Proof verification has a reputation for being an inordinately academic subject. In fact, even within scholarly (otherwise known as “unrealistically intelligent“) circles, the automated verification of proofs is known mainly as a complex, ugly and difficult task often not worth the effort. This is a shame really, [...]
Functional programming has a lot of weird and abstract concepts. Monads of course are the poster child for all that is strange and confusing in functional languages, but there are other examples. At first glance, it seems that the concept of an infinite list would be just as bizarre and incomprehensible as anything else in [...]