Error handling is hard, and it’s made harder by a rich error hierarchy. Programs that successfully handle errors tend to have only a couple of generic handlers. Code that catches specific types […]
Do we need 3, or just 2 error types?
The meta-field dilemma: `a.size` or `size(a)`
I can’t decide whether a.size or size(a) is more correct when getting the length of an array. While writing Leaf I have a recurrent feeling that perhaps a.size is wrong. What is […]
Why don’t we have runtime virtual dispatching?
Virtual functions are a great feature, but they have a rather severe limitation. They can only be implemented by extending the definition of all classes involved. A lot of operations on classes […]
Defects allowed by imprecise access modifiers
I recently fixed a defect that I felt the compiler could have caught. Some initialization code was not being run as I was calling a protected function instead of the correct public […]
Adding proxies to C#: A simple proposition
C# prefers composition to inheritance yet lacks any concise composition syntax. This is unfortunate. While I have nothing against composition, I really don’t like the redundancy of manually forwarding methods. Here I […]
1/2 Should Not Equal Zero
There’s something wrong when a language allows 1/2 to equal 0. It’s easy to understand why this happens, and perhaps it’s even easy to forgive the limitations of C. Nonetheless it’s irksome […]
What is a System Language?
Not all languages are made with the same purpose in mind. When it comes to designing a new language like Leaf, it’s important to choose what type of language it will be. […]
