Safe (Presentation)

Nov 8, 2009 | Published in languages, debugging, haskell, documenting, programming, teaching, university, testing

A presentation I want to do at CSE@UNSW at some point soonish.

Let me know your thoughts.

5 Comments

Responses

  1. liamoc says:

    Nov 27, 2009 at 12:00 AM

    @Mark: English is not Haskell.

  2. Mark Wotton says:

    Nov 9, 2009 at 12:00 AM

    If you're not concerned with precision of meaning, why on earth are you using Haskell?

  3. Kamatsu says:

    Nov 9, 2009 at 12:00 AM

    @Mark: I refuse to give in to grammar nazis. My meaning is clear and was understood, and hence I won't change it.

  4. Mark Wotton says:

    Nov 8, 2009 at 12:00 AM

    Hi Liam - small point, but "fewer bugs" rather than "less bugs".

  5. Conal Elliott says:

    Nov 8, 2009 at 12:00 AM

    Hi Liam. I like the clarity and down-to-earth nature of your presentation. One suggestion: I'd avoid any statements about what's "obvious" (or "clear"), which I hear as "in my blind spot" or "compatible with my unquestioned assumptions". If you really know something is so, then just say it. If you're uneasy, then rethink your claim and/or admit your uneasiness. A pet peeve of mine. More at http://conal.net/blog/posts/fostering-creativity-by-relinquishing-the-obvious/. In particular, please reconsider your remark "We use [Int] type because QuickCheck can't generate test cases for type [a] for obvious reasons." I have two problems with this remark. First, the reasons you can't may become less obvious if you think about them a lot more deeply. Second, while you've said (perhaps incorrectly) why you cannot test for the general case, you haven't said why testing only a single type-specialized case is even nearly adequate. You're not satisfied with testing with a single list, and yet you are satisfied with a single type. There is indeed a justification, but I doubt it'd be obvious until you've wrestled with the question for a long time and hit a deep insight. My hunch is that the word "obvious" makes issues like these two harder for people to notice and point out. A sort of Emperor's New Clothes phenomenon. Regards, - Conal

Leave a Response