core VS Elm

elm is a lovely lang. it would be nice to have modern APIs on it.

here's the project for new eyes:

https://github.com/elm/core

https://elm-lang.org/

In Basics.elm we have:

The package docs for all the functions we learned today

However I notice that the developed of elm/core has died down (last commit was 4 years ago) and I feel that it's fading into obscurity.

https://elmprogramming.com/

There isn't that much good learning material. It is important to get comfortable with the official docs. Especially the standard library that you find here: https://package.elm-lang.org/packages/elm/core/latest/

Looking at the default branch of core, you can already see this in more than just "for the compiler".

For a minimal but useful set of functionality, I would love to see a better set than elm/core. In essence, basic types (Int, Float, String, Bool) and ways to combine these: Tuples, Records, ADT. Since they are also used so frequently, List, Map/Dict, Set and Option/Maybe implementations should also be included. In terms of functions, basic Math and a sensible set of operations for each of the included types. Again, elm/core is a good example.

Once all that handwritten C code was solid, I needed to make sure the C generated from Elm was working properly. I found the source for the core library's unit tests and decided to port them into my project and add some of my own tests. You can run the tests in WebAssembly in your browser too. (Funnily enough, one of the biggest challenges was getting the Elm Test framework itself to run! The framework is more complex than the tests themselves. I still need to come back to the fuzzer tests!)

Elm [1] is based on a similar idea. Build your app from pure functions that return HTML tags.

[1] https://elm-lang.org/

You also wouldn't really be creating your own new programing language. You would be creating something that can run JavaScript by following JavaScript standards and syntax. You might be able to add some non-standard features of your own on top of those standards, or include your own standard library of helpers or utilities, but you can't completely make a new or alternative language and then load it in the browser (or at least not by reimplementing ECMAScript standards... you actually can make your own language that runs within any Javascript enviroment, if you provide an interpreter or compiler that transforms it into valid JS. Some people have done something like this, eg Elm: https://elm-lang.org/).

You should at least have a look at https://elm-lang.org/ it is a pure functional language like Haskell (although with fewer fancy syntax/type classes) but it has some lovely libraries for visualisation and even with plain elm (+ elm-ui) doing string transformations can be easily done.

I get it. However, the whole point of using Unions to narrow your types, ensure only a set of possible scenarios can occur, and only access data of a particular union when it’s safe to do so. That’s some of what pattern matching can provide, and 100% of what using switch statements in TypeScript with their Discriminated Unions can provide. Yes, it’s not 100% exhaustive, but TypeScript is not soundly typed, and even Elm which is still has the same issue TypeScript does: You’re running in JavaScript where anything is possible. So it’s good enough to build with and much better than what you had.

The beauty of a language like Elm (and other lambda-calculus / functional programming inspired languages) is that there's very little transformation involved in going from an idea to code. And that seems to have a big impact on getting things done.

I think the most fun and approachable way for beginners to build games with functional programming is with Elm [1].

See a few (small, demo) games built by the community in [2] .

Notice Elm has abandoned the FRP approach in favor of Model-View-Update [3].

[1] https://elm-lang.org/