Chapter 1. Overview

This chapter covers

  • Introducing type-driven development
  • The essence of pure functional programming
  • First steps with Idris

This book teaches a new approach to building robust software, type-driven development, using the Idris programming language. Traditionally, types are seen as a tool for checking for errors, with the programmer writing a complete program first and using either the compiler or the runtime system to detect type errors. In type-driven development, we use types as a tool for constructing programs. We put the type first, treating it as a plan for a program, and use the compiler and type checker as our assistant, guiding us to a complete and working program that satisfies the type. The more expressive the type ...

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