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Programming Language Design and Implementation Beta

Notable Question

 Notable Question
Question with 2,500 views. This badge can be awarded multiple times.
Awarded 105 times.
What are the pros and cons of fixed-point arithmetics vs floating-point arithmetics?
Awarded Aug 24 at 6:00
How is clang able to evaluate loops without getting stuck in an infinite loop?
Awarded Aug 7 at 14:33
What design trade-offs led to the "Norway problem" in YAML, and when are they worthwhile?
Awarded Aug 2 at 6:50
Why did C++ standard library name the containers map and unordered_map instead of map and ordered_map?
Awarded Jul 22 at 7:05
What are the ways compilers recognize complex patterns?
Awarded Jul 18 at 10:16
Executable files with a bytecode compiler/interpreter
Awarded Jul 10 at 17:50
What are the pros and cons of register-based VMs and stack-based VMs?
Awarded Jul 5 at 14:15
What is the explicit list of the situations that require RAII?
Awarded Jun 26 at 22:40
Why is array access not an infix operator?
Awarded Jun 12 at 17:22
Why can C not be lexed without resolving identifiers?
Awarded Jun 11 at 17:48
Early binding, mutual recursion, closures. Can I have all three?
Awarded Jun 7 at 10:33
What should be included in error messages?
Awarded Jun 7 at 8:56
Are there any advantages of evaluating expressions differently in compile time and runtime?
Awarded Jun 3 at 10:02
The static keyword and clarity in language design
Awarded May 25 at 1:55
What does it mean that a language has an "effect system"?
Awarded May 23 at 18:35
Whether the default behavior of +-×÷ should be saturation instead of wrapping when overflow?
Awarded May 10 at 11:05
How do you correctly compile the chained comparison operators like ones that exist in Python (`a < b < c`), if `b` might have side-effects?
Awarded Apr 30 at 17:35
How are "strong" and "weak" typing defined?
Awarded Apr 29 at 16:51
Are there any languages where conditions are not first-class expressions?
Awarded Apr 29 at 2:35
What are the pitfalls of using an existing IR/compiler infrastructure like LLVM?
Awarded Apr 7 at 23:26
Why do compilers typically convert code into abstract syntax/parse trees before the final product?
Awarded Mar 25 at 8:50
Why do (or don't) languages forbid unreachable code?
Awarded Mar 22 at 18:40
What syntax could be used to implement both an exponentiation operator and XOR?
Awarded Mar 19 at 2:20
Should a virtual machine stack have a limited size?
Awarded Mar 15 at 12:56
What languages give you access to the AST to modify during compilation?
Awarded Mar 8 at 0:51
How do lexers/parsers distinguish between nested generics and bitshifts?
Awarded Mar 7 at 4:56
How does one transpile valid code that corresponds to undefined behavior in the target language?
Awarded Mar 7 at 2:31
Why does Haskell use the bind operation instead of Kleisli composition?
Awarded Feb 24 at 9:25
Would it be safe to introduce the "freeze" statement?
Awarded Feb 16 at 17:52
How can I specify a programming language step-by-step more formally than by providing a reference interpreter?
Awarded Feb 11 at 21:02
"Testing" that something does not compile in metaprogramming
Awarded Feb 7 at 9:25
What are the advantages of having a set number of fixed sized integers versus defining the exact number of bits in every integer?
Awarded Feb 5 at 20:25
What is the difference between specification and a reference for programming languages?
Awarded Feb 2 at 9:27
To what extent is type theory relevant to dynamically typed languages?
Awarded Feb 2 at 6:55
Why is almost every programming language made in English?
Awarded Jan 29 at 8:33
Language features for making code easier to unit test
Awarded Jan 23 at 23:36
Why don't popular regex engines support complement and intersection?
Awarded Jan 18 at 22:10
To box or not to box? (how to determine if a value can be more efficiently passed by value or by reference)
Awarded Jan 10 at 11:07
Does using Rust eliminate the need to implement garbage collection in a language?
Awarded Jan 6 at 2:51
Negative literals, or unary negated positive literals?
Awarded Dec 31, 2023 at 1:26
Colored vs uncolored functions
Awarded Dec 27, 2023 at 10:27
When do we need complex type inference?
Awarded Dec 25, 2023 at 4:46
Why does SQL treat null = null as null, unlike all other mainstream programming languages where null = null is true?
Awarded Dec 22, 2023 at 16:50
Should bytes be signed?
Awarded Dec 12, 2023 at 9:37
Can sine converge to zero at infinity?
Awarded Dec 4, 2023 at 11:57
Studies on learnability of braces vs. indentation for code blocks for beginners?
Awarded Dec 2, 2023 at 20:32
Why are volatile objects so difficult to work with in C++?
Awarded Dec 2, 2023 at 11:05
How to implement + in a language where functions accept only one argument? [closed]
Awarded Dec 1, 2023 at 22:40
Why would a language have a concept of undefined behavior instead of raising an error?
Awarded Dec 1, 2023 at 9:35
Why do common Rust packages depend on C code?
Awarded Nov 26, 2023 at 14:42
What are the drawbacks of allowing implicit boolean/integer conversions?
Awarded Nov 22, 2023 at 20:35
Are there Haskell-like languages where equations allow for arbitrary left-hand sides?
Awarded Nov 21, 2023 at 20:26
Why do some languages have both immutable "variables" and constants?
Awarded Nov 20, 2023 at 14:31
How do languages chain higher-order functions while still keeping performance?
Awarded Nov 20, 2023 at 5:52
Why do some PL choose to have a dedicated keyword for elseif instead of like in C?
Awarded Nov 19, 2023 at 21:05
Why do so many programming languages not have a "built-in" way to do simple math functions?
Awarded Nov 13, 2023 at 15:04
Why do many template languages have `for-else` statements?
Awarded Nov 12, 2023 at 22:48
Are there any situations in which it would make sense to return a never type?
Awarded Nov 10, 2023 at 7:25
Could function parameters be placed inside names?
Awarded Nov 9, 2023 at 17:16
Why did Rust require macro names to have an exclamation point at the end?
Awarded Oct 30, 2023 at 0:03
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