Re: [Qi] Fwd: book deal goes through with printer

["Kyle R. Burton" <kyle.burton@gmail.com>]

>> Don't know if any of you guys are following Qi, but the best way I can
>> paraphrase it's core concept is: Qi re-defines what 'strongly typed'
>> means for programming languages.  One of the things the tutorial goes
>> through is extending the type-system by creating a Prime Number type.
>> That type then becomes part of the compile-time analysis and type
>> checking.
>
> what if you have a very large prime number? it would take forever to compile

That is, in fact, one aspect of Qi that is invisible in most other
languages: the type-system in Qi has the halting problem.

You'd think that was a deal breaker, but in practice it probably
isn't.  With Qi you have the ability to define _any_ type checking you
want, the trade off is that you've extended the compiler and thus have
the facet you've identified.

If the compile-time goes up, or never completes (theoretically
possible), it's probable that in any other system you'd have the issue
at _run-time_ anyway, in Qi you're probably discovering it earlier in
the process - at compile time.

It's worth looking at for it's alternate take on how it looks at the
world.  I'm not saying you should now write all your code in Qi, but
studying it should make you think in ways you're not used to (which
has often improved my skills in general).

Kyle