[steveklabnik]

Thanks!

Yeah, teaching the module system is kind of my white whale. Carol and I have spent more time on that part of the book than almost any other; re-written like five times.

My current working theory is that most people assume that "the module system" is similar to whatever one they've used in the past, then run into problems, and leads to frustration. I've talked to so many people who have totally opposite problems with it, with no real pattern to issues or expectations.

I think that it's very straightforward, personally, with very very simple rules (especially in 2018). But I certainly acknowledge that I am the exception, not the rule.

[orthoxerox]

> My current working theory is that most people assume that "the module system" is similar to whatever one they've used in the past, then run into problems, and leads to frustration. I've talked to so many people who have totally opposite problems with it, with no real pattern to issues or expectations.

When I treated modules as Java packages or C# namespaces I hated them. Only when I realized that I can treat them as glorified C imports did they start to make sense. I still hate them, but at least I can rationalize their design now.

[rabidferret]

> I think that it's very straightforward, personally, with very very simple rules (especially in 2018).

I agree with you. It's a shame we don't have a simple visual metaphor to describe this

EDIT: Wait does hacker news just delete non-ascii? I tried to put an upside down smiley here how is this even worse than I thought

[steveklabnik]

https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc is the only actual description, but it does seem that non-ascii text is ignored, yes.

[saagarjha]

The rules are mainly there to filter out emoji; it can do most non-ASCII outside of that. L͇̭̝̲͍̠̼͒̌̋̄͟͝ͅi̢̭̬̥͍̣͓͗͆͆̄͝k̸̙̹̠̘̤̪͓̼̠̋̽̿̇̕͜͝͠ė̜͙̥̟͍͇͉͖͌́̑̈́̎͐ Ž̶̨̛͇͙̹͖̳̂͊͐̅̇̓a̸̭͙͇͙͙̝̟̯̮̠͌̊̑̏͊͡ĺ̸̻̟̩̼̙͈̒̿̀̈̓̌́̐̓ģ̵͉̺̹̥̤͎̟̓̓̑̋̈́̇͢͜͡ơ̷͖̤͎̮͈͆̌̿͂̂̚͘.̴̱̬̮̟͖͆̄̉̔̏͛̒̇̌ͅ

[rabidferret]

Why would they filter emoji specifically? They're such a major part of modern communication

[mlindner]

I don't know what "modern communication" you're using, but the only emoji I use are ones that can be written in simple ascii, :( , :-/ , :) , :D , ;) , etc. Most emoji are simply symbols for different activities, but they don't need to be used at all. The only place I see heavy use of emoji is on twitter, but that's because of the character limitation. Additionally emoji are colored and not black and white like text so they're glaring with respect to text around them.

[saagarjha]

My guess is that they draw undue attention to themselves.