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Discussion on: Discuss: Why do developers equate popularity with success for OSS projects?

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James Carlson • Edited

I've started reading "Out of the Tar Pit," (OOTTP) by Ben Mosely and Peter Marks. On page 3, there is this quote from Tony Hoare in his Turing Award speech: "... there is one quality that cannot be purchased ... -- and that is reliability. The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity."

The guarantees given by Elm's type system and compiler make the design and construction of reliable code much easier than with many competing frontend languages. By that measure, Elm is successful.

Another point from OOTTP. The authors identify complexity as the main source of trouble in developing software, and they go on to say that the main source of complexity is program state. Then, on page 8, they declare "As a result of the above [arguments] .. the more we can do to limit and manage state, the better. This is what Elm does via the Elm Architecture, and it is one more reason why Elm is such a good tool for building web apps.

NOTE: I have seen reports of use by Elm at Amazon, Ford, and Microsoft. It would be worthwhile to understand why groups at these companies have chosen to use Elm, and to understand what this may mean for the future.