Soften 'functions are second-class' statement in language tour #1159
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jiribenes
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Oct 23, 2025
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| Functions are second-class in Effekt, but for a good reason. Functions closing over capabilities must not be returned, otherwise it can not be guaranteed that these capabilities are still in scope. | ||
| Thus, we have to keep track of these captures and ensure they are in scope upon invoking. | ||
| [Computations](/tour/computation), such as functions and objects, are second-class _by default_ in Effekt, but for a good reason. |
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Does the "but for a good reason" add anything? 🤔
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I think it is fine, since it leads over to the next sentence.
Note that #1172 added back the explicit syntax. |
b-studios
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Nov 30, 2025
| [Computations](/tour/computation), such as functions and objects, are second-class _by default_ in Effekt, but for a good reason. | ||
| Since computations can capture capabilities, they can only be used where those capabilities remain in scope. | ||
| For statically preventing capabilities from escaping their valid scope, Effekt tracks captured capabilities on the type level and verifies they're still in scope upon usage. | ||
| We call this mechanism _boxing_ and will discuss in greater details in the next [section](/tour/captures#boxing). |
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This is a bit misleading IMO. I would rather say something like
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| We call this mechanism _boxing_ and will discuss in greater details in the next [section](/tour/captures#boxing). | |
| Functions and capabilities can still be treated as first-class values by means of _boxing_, which we discuss in greater details in the next [section](/tour/captures#boxing). |
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Feel free to also add other grievances you have with the language tour. Then we can just bundle them all in one PR.