7 comments

  • cyanregiment 2 hours ago
    Clicked like 5 pages and never found 1 code example.

    Idk why languages don't have their syntax in a sandbox front-and-center on the home page.

    It's like a video game site with zero screenshots or videos (also rampant).

    New programming languages I want 2 things:

    1. What does the syntax look like

    2. Why would I use this language

    Talk about the proof logic, show the syntax, thank you

    • kasumispencer2 1 hour ago
      > Clicked like 5 pages and never found 1 code example.

      But I clicked one (1) link to the online book and found a thousand?

      • giancarlostoro 37 minutes ago
        Should be on the home page of any programming language site.
        • kasumispencer2 26 minutes ago
          Is there actually any difference when it's just one (1) link away? Are most of us seriously this busy that we cannot spend even half a minute on this?
    • rixed 2 hours ago
      I'm the opposite: when landing in a programming language site I want to know the user case the authors had in mind, the memory model, the type system, the compilation targets, the data layout, the control structures, and only at the end just check that the syntax is not indentation based.
      • sroerick 1 hour ago
        So I'm very seriously considering making my language indentation based. You're saying you wouldn't like that?
        • rixed 59 minutes ago
          No indeed I'm not a fan. I find it brittle and arbitrary for data values especially; that also makes automatic code generation and edition harder, for no good reason. But that's not an important consideration either way.
        • zlsa 1 hour ago
          I think this falls under "[wanting] to know the user case the authors had in mind"
          • BretonForearm 1 hour ago
            There is no "user case", it's called use case.
            • aleph_minus_one 53 minutes ago
              > There is no "user case", it's called use case.

              Perhaps English is not a native language for zlsa?

        • giancarlostoro 36 minutes ago
          I love that people hate indentation based so I show them a poorly indented C style languages codebase to see how they feel about indentation.
          • koolala 32 minutes ago
            Isn't it easy to just auto format it?
    • Verdex 2 hours ago
      To borrow your video game analogy. F* is the dwarf fortress of programming languages. Screenshots are only going to confuse anyone who isn't ready to take a significant mental journey.
    • voodooEntity 12 minutes ago
      Thank you ! I just had the absolute same experience and was about to write a similar comment - take my upvote instead !
    • munchler 2 hours ago
      • _flux 2 hours ago
        I guess it's a bit popular right now

            * Error 17 at Welcome.fst(24,0-28,30):
              - Could not start SMT solver process.
              - Command: ‘/home/site/wwwroot/fstar/bin/z3’
              - Exception:
                  Unix.Unix_error(Unix.ENOENT, "create_process", "/home/site/wwwroot/fstar/bin/z3")
            
            1 error was reported (see above)
      • aleph_minus_one 2 hours ago
        > https://fstar-lang.org/tutorial/

        FYI: The link to this tutorial is unluckily a little bit obscured on the F* website: Go to

        > https://fstar-lang.org/index.html#learn (1)

        and click on the image below the text "You probably want to read it while trying out examples and exercises in your browser by clicking the image below.".

        In the section of (1) also the PDF version is linked:

        > https://fstar-lang.org/tutorial/proof-oriented-programming-i...

        • cyanregiment 2 hours ago
          I still don't see any code examples!

          But I do see the editor to try it.

          I wonder why more languages don't have a few simple examples of: "HTTP server", "hello world", "todo list app" that you can just click and it shows the code for how you'd make it in that language.

          It matters a lot how the syntax looks IMO and seeing how, say, an API is scaffolded, helps understand a lot about the language in one glance

          Edit: Page 18 of the PDF. That's the first time I found what the code looks like, thanks for sharing!

          • aleph_minus_one 58 minutes ago
            > I wonder why more languages don't have a few simple examples of: "HTTP server", "hello world", "todo list app" that you can just click and it shows the code for how you'd make it in that language.

            Often the reason is that the value that the programming language brings is thinking very differently about how to write code - the examples how to write something in it are merely the "more boring" consequences of this different way of thinking.

            --

            If you want a programming language that "just" enables you to write something well-understood (in particular in the area of web development) like your suggested

            > "HTTP server", "hello world", "todo list app"

            in a perhaps just a little bit more elegant/concise way, just look at which web development language/framework is currently fashionable on HN.

    • rainyq 2 hours ago
      just click the screenshot
      • cyanregiment 2 hours ago
        Takes you to an empty editor with still no code examples
    • remywang 1 hour ago
      That’s because syntax is the least interesting part of F*.
    • qzzi 2 hours ago
      I clicked on 2 links on the main page in the Learn F* section...
  • pvsnp 3 hours ago
    I liked being able to express calling external libraries while incrementally migrating existing C codebases to F*. Very solid language.
    • rixed 56 minutes ago
      What do you mean "express calling"? You mean calling the former C versions of the functions not yet ported, while asserting their behavior?
  • 3lambda 1 hour ago
    Would this language be useful for implementing compilers and formally proving things about them?
  • IshKebab 1 hour ago
    F* seems to be a collection of like five different languages and proof systems. Honestly I never figured it out.

    Does it get basic stuff like subtraction and u8 right, unlike Lean?

  • rustfreeforme 1 hour ago
    [dead]
  • rustfreeforme 1 hour ago
    [dead]
  • kirlfiend_grill 2 hours ago
    > F* (pronounced F star)

    No, it isn't.