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Red Hat Releases Ceylon Language 1.0.0

First time accepted submitter Gavin King writes with news that the Ceylon language hit 1.0 "Ceylon 1.0 is a modern, modular, statically typed programming language for the Java and JavaScript virtual machines. The language features, an emphasis upon readability and a strong bias toward omission or elimination of potentially-harmful constructs; an extremely powerful type system combining subtype and parametric polymorphism with declaration-site variance, including first-class union and intersection types, and using principal types for local type inference and flow-dependent typing; a unique treatment of function and tuple types, enabling powerful abstractions; first-class constructs for defining modules and dependencies between modules; a very flexible syntax including comprehensions and support for expressing tree-like structures; and fully-reified generic types, on both the JVM and JavaScript virtual machines, and a unique typesafe metamodel. More information may be found in the feature list and quick introduction." If you think Ceylon is cool, you might find Ur/Web interesting too.

16 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Cool! by warrax_666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One of the few languages in recent times with an interesting type system which isn't just a trivial rehash of existing (in practice) ones.

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    HAND.
    1. Re:Cool! by ron_ivi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'd like to see a type system that can help enforce units (like mass * distance = force). If it were really lightweight (in typing) to create types with meaningful units, it could protect you from accidentally adding things like Mbits with MBytes.

    2. Re:Cool! by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You'd love Haskell.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    3. Re:Cool! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You'd love Haskell.

      I hear a lot of scheme-brained hares saying this.

      But I assure you, you're wrong.

  2. Shite by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The language features, an emphasis upon readability and a strong bias toward omission or elimination of potentially-harmful constructs

    Like that comma?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Re:Enough already. by Mitchell314 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Honestly, I'd be happy with just a C variant with built-in string support.

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    I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
  4. Concurrency by emorning9707 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have no interest in a new language that has concurrency story at all.
    Any new language needs to address the biggest development challenge of this time - coding for multiple cores.

  5. Re:Enough already. by ReAn1985 · · Score: 4, Informative

    D does!. But D also has so many neat features.

    D is wonderful, and it can interop with C / C++ or write inline ASM for you micro-optimists out there.

  6. Re:Brain Dead by Kongming · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People do not think in types.

    Piaget would disagree with you.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_(psychology)

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    (no sig)
  7. Re:Enough already. by ebno-10db · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are too many programming languages.

    Some people describe the recent increase in the number of languages as the Cambrian explosion, but what we need now is a mass extinction.

  8. Red Hat's plans by Kongming · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am curious as to Red Hat's practical motivations for creating this language. Specifically, do they plan on integrating it in their existing business or projects in any way?

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    (no sig)
  9. Re:harmful constructs by preflex · · Score: 4, Informative

    That example does not compile in Ceylon with a compile error that disproves your claim:

    expression must be of boolean type: Integer is not assignable to Boolean

    variable value x = 3;

    if ( x = 4 ) {

    }

    if(x=true) ...

    This is still bad.

  10. Re:But.. by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Funny

    Only once.

    That's the point - you can never re-assign to a variable.

    It felt like a kick in the monads.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  11. Re:Ceylon? by rssrss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Serendib is the Arabic name for the Island, and Serendip in Persian. A Persian folk tale "The Three Princes of Serendip" became known in England through a 16th century Italian translation. The protagonists of that story were in the habit of discovering of things they were not seeking. In 1754 Horace Walpole, English writer and parliamentarian, coin the English word "serendipity" to capture that happy characteristic.

    Taprobane, a Greek name for the island, would be another literary allusion.

    --
    In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
  12. Re:Thank goodness by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, he probably means writing gobs and gobs and gobs of difficult to support and debug software. But yours is right too,

    Fuck using a scripting language for anything beyond a "script".

  13. Re:Fits partially with tradition by narcc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pure practicality?

    PHP didn't even start out as a programming language. Even now, you can happily look at it as a bunch of stuff that makes it easy for people make dynamic websites. It is clearly quite successful. It's successful because it was really good at doing the job it was, er, "designed" to do.

    PHP, then, would fall neatly under the "successful languages" category.

    Hate it all you want. Bitch and moan on Slashdot 'till your fingers bleed. It's not going away any time soon. There is no alternative that is even half as easy to set up and use. There is no suitable replacement. That "unusable" language just happens to be the best thing around.

    I point out this obvious fact because it drives morons incapable of forming their own opinions crazy. With any luck, they'll stop polluting every programming related thread with their miserable whining.