Software Unscripted From Scala to Roc with Monica McGuigan
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Jan 27, 2025 Monica McGuigan, a Scala programmer at JP Morgan, shares her journey transitioning to the Roc programming language. They discuss how language design impacts learning, especially for beginners tackling functional programming. Monica highlights Roc's simplicity and innovative features like inline testing and advanced string handling. The conversation also touches on the challenges of Unicode and the nuances of data representation, providing insights into adapting code practices from Scala to Roc while embracing new programming concepts.
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From Scala to Roc
- Monica McGuigan found Roc similar to Scala in pattern matching and data handling.
- The lack of robust IDE support in Roc, compared to IntelliJ for Scala, was a key difference.
Learning Roc with JSON Decoders
- McGuigan learned Roc by writing a JSON decoder, a project she'd previously done in Scala.
- She found the different terminology for similar functional programming concepts, like tags versus ADTs, notable.
Naming Conventions in Programming
- The term "algebraic data type" lacks intuitive meaning for those unfamiliar with the underlying concepts.
- Richard Feldman chose "tag union" for Roc to connect the term with its runtime representation.