Richard Feldman, "Millions of Users, Purely Functional Code"
Channel: Houston FPUG
Date: 2021-09-09

Abstract:  At NoRedInk we had a normal React code base. That is, until we tried Elm – a purely functional language that compiles to JavaScript. A couple years and a couple hundred thousand lines of Elm code later, we found ourselves with a lot more users and no runtime exceptions in the production logs from our Elm code. Lots of companies dabble in functional programming, but most code in the world today is imperative. In contrast, the NoRedInk story is one of a successful business built on pure functional programming: today essentially our entire frontend is Elm, and the majority of our traffic is handled by a Haskell service on the back-end.This talk is partly about what these technologies are – so don’t worry if they’re unfamiliar! – and partly about why and how we successfully adopted them.Bio: Richard helps create NoRedInk’s user interface. Prior to NoRedInk, Richard architected a data visualization framework for high-throughput genomic sequencing, built a long-form writing web app that could be brought up and used offline, and worked for three other startups—two of which he co-founded. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and an MBA, both from Washington University in St. Louis. He nods approvingly when grocery store express checkouts are labeled “10 items or fewer” instead of “10 items or less.”