Lambda the Ultimate

Post by Joe Armstrong of Erlang fame. Leader:

Why do we need modules at all? This is a brain-dump-stream-of-consciousness-thing. I've been thinking about this for a while. I'm proposing a slightly different way of programming here. The basic idea is:

• do away with modules
• all functions have unique distinct names
• all functions have (lots of) meta data
• all functions go into a global (searchable) Key-value database
• we need letrec
• contribution to open source can be as simple as contributing a single function
• there are no "open source projects" - only "the open source Key-Value database of all functions"
• Content is peer reviewed

Why does Erlang have modules? There's a good an bad side to modules. Good: Provides a unit of compilation, a unit of code distribution. unit of code replacement. Bad: It's very difficult to decide which module to put an individual function in. Break encapsulation (see later).