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Principle of Least Power (Scala) alvin December 18, 2018 - 6:13am

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In this video Martin Odersky shares an analogy of using a stapler when you need a stapler (not a power tool). He highly recommends reading Li Haoyi’s article, Principle of Least Power.

My Android AsyncTask docs and examples (parameters, callbacks, executing, canceling)

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: August 5 2017

I’ve currently written this document as a “note to self” about how the Android AsyncTask works. It’s currently incomplete, but if you want to know how an AsyncTask works, most of the answers are generally here. I provide documentation for most aspects of the AsyncTask, though my coverage of (a) updating progress/status and (b) canceling an AsyncTask is a little weak atm.

Two steps to deriving a generic algorithm

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: June 16 2017

“Two steps are required to write a good piece of code. The first step is to get the algorithm right. The second step is to figure out which sorts of things (types) it works for.”

From the “Deriving a Generic Algorithm” chapter in the book, From Mathematics to Generic Programming.

Data types show you understand the problem

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: October 22 2016

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I like the statement in this image because it says something I’ve always thought: Your design of the data types show that you understand the problem (or not). Every time I start writing code without understanding the problem, I waste a lot of time. (If you don’t understand the problem, exactly what code are you going to write?)

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Can Scala have a highly parallel typechecker?

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: August 4 2016

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If you’re interested in the details of how Scala works, such as its compiler, this medium.com article by Grzegorz Kossakowski is a good read. In the summary he states:

“I believe the architecture of Hack’s highly parallel and distributed typechecker can be stolen and brought to Scala. Scala’s rich type system poses some challenges that Hack’s typechecker implementators didn’t need to worry about but I don’t see inferred return types or path-depent types as showstoppers.”

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