Teaching a Man to Fish …and all that

One of the very nice properties of type-safe, functional source code or API is that “an example usage of that API …” can almost always be answered with “anything that type-checks.” Now for some people and for some libraries, this answer is unsatisfactory, offensive even — they demand an example dammit!

But what they think I am going to do? Do they really think I have a library of examples in my head that I am holding hostage? Do they think that I am being spiteful toward them by withholding this library of knowledge that I possess and they do not? No, what I would do here is exactly what they are very capable of doing — they can find any type-checking program. In fact, this is the tool support that I aspire to so that I do not have to maintain a “library of examples” in my own head.

By appeasing their demand for “example usages of …”, if I were to do such an unfortunate thing, I am disservicing them. I am taking away their opportunity to develop the skills to answer this question for themselves. I am not even giving a good answer to the specifics of the question. It is not “a good example” of anything at all. It is the process by which the example is derived that is useful and nothing else.

So go on, try it. Create yourself a type-checking program. You may be a bit uncomfortable with the much higher degree of tool support in this environment. All I can say is, embrace it, cherish it even. Go.