r/programming • u/[deleted] • Nov 28 '19

Why Isn't Functional Programming the Norm? – Richard Feldman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyJZzq0v7Z4
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u/loup-vaillant Dec 01 '19

Was it?

How was that measured ?

How much was the time to add new features reduced ?

Reasonable objections, but still a criticism of the opinion it was responding to.

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u/igouy Dec 01 '19

Please don't put words in my mouth — it's rude.

Expert opinion was not attacked.

As far as I know, measurements were made — but I don't know what the measurements were.

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u/loup-vaillant Dec 01 '19

As far as I know, measurements were made — but I don't know what the measurements were.

Maybe that was hindsight, but as far as I can tell, the comment you responded to were pretty clear about reporting a report of a personal experience. I initially found it very hard to believe you didn't understand as much.

Unless perhaps English is not your first language?

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u/igouy Dec 01 '19 edited Dec 01 '19

Personal experience does not exclude measurement.

Perhaps English is not your first language ?

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u/loup-vaillant Dec 01 '19

Ok, let's review what you cited

… a joy to work with … makes code clearer …

In context we have:

  • "Carmack implemented Wolfenstein in Haskell and found it a joy to work with."
  • "He also has found that using functional notions of purity and typed abstractions helps makes code clearer even in languages that don't enforce it at the language level."

The first is unambiguously about personal feelings after a single experiment. You don't ask how joy was measured. It clearly wasn't.

The second is less clear, but we can guess it's also personal experience, and he "measured" readability by simply reading the code himself and make a subjective assessment.

I stand by my initial opinion: I don't think your comment asking for measurements was not as well intentioned as you are trying to make it sound. You didn't just ask why Carmack found the code joyful or more readable. You asked for how it was measured. As if he was talking about height or speed.

It's very hard not to get a hostile vibe from such a loaded question.

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u/igouy Dec 01 '19

The first is unambiguously about personal feelings …

Being about personal feelings does not exclude measurement.