Roc - A Functional Language looking for those Software Sweetspots (with Richard Feldman)

Sometimes, what a programming language makes harder is just as important as what it makes easier. For a simple example, think of GOTO. We’ve been wisely avoiding it for decades because it makes confusing control flow desperately easy. Types and tests are other examples - they’re as much about specifying what shouldn’t work as what should. And perspective is what makes this week’s topic particularly interesting: Roc is a language that’s functional, fast, friendly, and extremely interested in making your life easier by enabling some possibilities and restricting others.

So this week we’re joined by Richard Feldman, the creator of Roc. He’s been an advocate of the Elm programming language for years, for its tight focus on taking the best bits of Functional Programming to the browser. And in recent years he’s been inspired to build his own language, taking that philosophy to other places and platforms.

But which bits are “the best bits”? And how do they change when the domain you’re coding for changes? How is Roc built and how would we build systems in it? Let’s find out…

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Roc’s homepage: https://www.roc-lang.org/

Richard’s GOTO Copenhagen 2021 talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n17wHe5wEw

Richard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rtfeldman

Kris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/

Kris on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@krisajenkins

Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkins