Stream: Miscellaneous

Topic: New stack exchange for PL

walker (Feb 25 2023 at 21:18):

There is an initiative for a new stack exchange website for PL/PL related stuff, it feel overlapping with proof-assistants on many aspects:

I will leave link for it here in case one is interested:
https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/127456/programming-language-design-and-implementation

Karl Palmskog (Feb 25 2023 at 22:19):

looks like they want PL without any formal methods or software engineering. That will either be extremely niche or indeed just Proof Assistant Stack Exchange but only using LaTeX proofs/arguments...

walker (Feb 26 2023 at 10:42):

I think the intesection would be in type checking, but imo there is more to PL than just types/proofs, there is always the lexing/parsing parts and then all the trick that can be played with SSA

Karl Palmskog (Feb 26 2023 at 11:12):

concepts that are regularly formalized in Coq, Isabelle, etc., in PLDI/POPL papers

James Wood (Mar 02 2023 at 11:29):

Karl Palmskog said:

looks like they want PL without any formal methods or software engineering. That will either be extremely niche or indeed just Proof Assistant Stack Exchange but only using LaTeX proofs/arguments...

It depends what you mean by “extremely niche”, I guess. Looking at the example questions, there are a lot design questions that mathematical reasoning alone can't answer, and a lot of parsing and other technical questions that proof assistants are not the best tool for. If anything, it looks less niche than PASE.

Karl Palmskog (Mar 02 2023 at 11:39):

let's take parsers as an example:

• how to best develop and run a parser is an SE / software engineering question
• abstract questions on the theory behind parsers or corresponding languages go to TCS
• how to connect the theory of parsers into verified parsers (see: CompCert) go to PA SE

Karl Palmskog (Mar 02 2023 at 11:44):

the main audience of PL SE as currently conceived might be the domain-specific languages crowd, but that seems nearly 100% SE / software engineering to me

James Wood (Mar 02 2023 at 12:16):

You could similarly argue that most PA SE questions could go on TCS SE or Stack Overflow or whatever (as they did before PA SE, and often still do), but it's not a strong argument against PA SE existing.

Karl Palmskog (Mar 02 2023 at 13:43):

there was always the argument that Coq questions in TCS or SO were more suitable elsewhere in a more specialized Exchange. My argument is that the same is difficult to argue for "PL" questions, when there is already TCS, SO, SoftEng, PA SE, ...

Last updated: Jun 05 2023 at 10:01 UTC