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PL twitter: quick, what's the scariest screenshot you can find of a paper with an overwhelming amount of inference rules?
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Serious question: do people (outside of the paper authors) actually understand what these rules mean?
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I consume PL papers as part of my job, and I do actually get a lot of value out of these rules! Sometimes as a reader they can be hard to parse at first. Like anything it takes a bit of taste to use them effectively as a form of communication.
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This said, I *do* think it would be cool to take a step back and think about how we design PL notation in a way that makes communication easier. I definitely think it's an unfortunate barrier to entry, and can be hard to deal with even if you are experienced with it.
I wonder how we could improve it. part of the issue is the tension between concision and completeness, I think. as indecipherable as judgment rules &c can be at first, I don't think people would prefer, like, 10 pages of English text thoroughly explaining the mechanism.
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maybe part of it is just consistency. seems like many authors like to use slightly different notation, so you have to be careful to read their specific flavor notes prior to engaging with the material. maybe we need a PL standards office 😂
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I think my biggest issue is that the rules are almost never accompanied by even a toy implementation even when the claim is that they can be implemented.
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At the very least, I'd personally love an "intro to reading these", complete with exercises
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You may already know this one, but this is one I send people who are interested: siek.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/crash- - but yeah I reckon it would be cool to also have something more substantial.
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