November 02
On the Ergonomics of FP compiler errors in PureScript / Haskell
Authors of compilers for Pure Functional Programming languages with as rich, extensive
and extensible type-systems as the current-gen "ML family" (top-spots Haskell, Elm, PureScript)
seem to find it challenging to formulate many-if-not-most of their compiler's error messages
—typically arising in already highly abstracted, über-generalized "meta-sphere"
contexts— in a manner that won't frustrate practically all beginner and intermediate users,
plus a substantial number of veterans. As a result, complaints about "cryptic errors" abound
and often top the lists-of-criticisms in most threads about Haskell and PureScript.