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Guide: reference to "really smart type theorists" unnecessary #17229

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bjpop opened this issue Sep 13, 2014 · 5 comments
Closed

Guide: reference to "really smart type theorists" unnecessary #17229

bjpop opened this issue Sep 13, 2014 · 5 comments

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@bjpop
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bjpop commented Sep 13, 2014

Section 5, Variable bindings, mentions "Well, Rust has this thing called "Hindley-Milner type inference", named after some really smart type theorists."

This is a minor nitpick, but I cringed when I read that sentence.

There are lots of features in Rust that are the result of work by smart people. There is no need to single out the Hindley-Milner algorithm.

Also the follow on text seems a bit patronising "If you clicked that link, don't be scared:"

Writing like that tends to perpetuate the idea that type inference is deep magic, when it is not.

I expect many people reading the Rust guide will be familiar with type inference, even the HM algorithm. It is fine to link to the Wikipedia article, but I think the Guide should not imply that it is a difficult topic or something which is scary.

@steveklabnik
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I expect many people reading the Rust guide will be familiar with type inference, even the HM algorithm.

I very strongly disagree with this, but do agree that I don't have the right tone here.

I think the Guide should not imply that it is a difficult topic or something which is scary.

hindley milner

@mahkoh
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mahkoh commented Sep 13, 2014

I'd call this fallacy "Appeal to unfamiliar notation."

@bkoropoff
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If stylistic concerns are not compelling, there is a good technical one: Rust no longer uses H-M type inference. See the pull request and Niko's blog post that mentions abandoning H-M.

@steveklabnik
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Oh, I mean, I do think that style arguments are. Didn't mean to imply otherwise. But I also forgot that we switched, so thanks for the reminder.=

@zwarich
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zwarich commented Sep 13, 2014

Rust also never really used H-M.

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5 participants