Monday, November 6, 2006

Win for Type Theory?

I have had discussions with friends in the past about the actual usefulness of the research that comes out of the academic community (in the field of computer science at least). While I don't often have good examples to point them towards, I think now I might.

LINQ, the name of the in-language SQL/XML/etc. query ability that will be built in to C# 3.0 is based upon a programming language technology known as monads, which are an important part of the programming language Haskell. Here is an interesting article on why it is neat, and why Java programmers should be worried (okay, I'm not to sure about that part).

Just nice to see some type theory escape to the larger world of popular programming languages.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks to the wonders of facebook (your Halloween costume = genius), I found your livejournal! And not surprisingly, your blog is full of fascinating tidbits. I read the article, and from my very limited knowledge, it was interesting. The future always looms large over the heads of us all.

    However, I'm still smarting from an earlier encounter with a copy of "PHP & MYSQL for Dummies" in Borders today. I started to read through it, and I was quickly reminded what a dunce I am when it comes to programming languages. Can you transplant part of your brain into mine before I start graduate school in January? Evidently online databases are an important part of information science, and I'm behind the curve. I knew I shouldn't have taken all of those liberal arts classes. :P

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  2. Hey Jenn!
    Good to hear from you! I will see what I can do re transplanting a piece of my brain into your head, although since arriving at CMU I am much less confident as to how much that will actually give you. ;-)

    Congrats on starting the journey that is graduate school, and in a much warmer place than I currently find myself! Information Science? Sounds radical. Just don't forget to tell those people how we were robbed back in last year's Rose Bowl...

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