reflection or types, either/or?
Conversation
this split is so deep that it feels like two separate programmer personalities to me
1
Replying to
I think that's mostly an outcome of programming language designs, what features are made accessible and effective in a given environment.
At intersection, there is stuff like using macros as type systems or vice versa.
ccs.neu.edu/home/stchang/p
1
1
Replying to
The key thing seems to be to allow the feedback loop or not, i.e. keep things staged, or let the system self-modify and update its own semantics.
This shows up in Erlang hot code loading for instance.
I ran into this also trying to "unroll" Forth, which is highly reflective and self-modifying, and so was very hard to fit into the Racket staged system.
1
But yeah you're right. This isn't about types per se. It's about updating the interpreter while it is running vs. sticking to a fixed (though multi-staged) semantics.
1
1
Show replies