> After 1970 with the introduction of Martin-Löf's Intuitionistic Type Theory, an inbreed of abstract math and computer science, a period of intense research on new type languages as Agda and Epigram started. This ended up forming the basic support layer for functional programming paradigms. All these theories are taught at college level and hailed as "the next new thing", with vast resources dedicated to them.
This seems pretty dubious. Dependently typed languages and other projects embracing advanced type theory are still the realm of niche enthusiasts. While some of the more academic colleges might teach them in one or two courses, the vast majority of education a CS college student receives will be taught in traditional imperative languages. If "vast resources" have been devoted to Agda and Epigram, then I'm not sure what kind of language should be used to describe the resources devoted to C, C++, Java, etc. Also as the author mentions, Intuitionistic Type Theory has been around since the 70's, in fact the same year that C was introduced. Certainly it hasn't been taking over the CS world by storm since its inception, as he seems to claim.
Beyond that, the author's argument seems to be a bit incoherent. He critiques the readability of Modern C++, but C++ is notoriously hard to understand, including or especially prior to the development of C++11. It's never going to be an easy language to read except to seasoned developers. If anything, modern C++11 seems to provide abstractions that increase readability and safety. He critiques the performance of modern C++, but then he ends up recommending that people ditch C++ entirely and learn VHDL/verilog instead. Not even vanilla C++ is fast enough for him, then why criticize modern C++ on the grounds of performance?
This seems pretty dubious. Dependently typed languages and other projects embracing advanced type theory are still the realm of niche enthusiasts. While some of the more academic colleges might teach them in one or two courses, the vast majority of education a CS college student receives will be taught in traditional imperative languages. If "vast resources" have been devoted to Agda and Epigram, then I'm not sure what kind of language should be used to describe the resources devoted to C, C++, Java, etc. Also as the author mentions, Intuitionistic Type Theory has been around since the 70's, in fact the same year that C was introduced. Certainly it hasn't been taking over the CS world by storm since its inception, as he seems to claim.
Beyond that, the author's argument seems to be a bit incoherent. He critiques the readability of Modern C++, but C++ is notoriously hard to understand, including or especially prior to the development of C++11. It's never going to be an easy language to read except to seasoned developers. If anything, modern C++11 seems to provide abstractions that increase readability and safety. He critiques the performance of modern C++, but then he ends up recommending that people ditch C++ entirely and learn VHDL/verilog instead. Not even vanilla C++ is fast enough for him, then why criticize modern C++ on the grounds of performance?