Interfaces Brainstorm

[OAGr]

• x Is new feature

Description of suggestion or shortcoming:

I think that Interfaces could work a lot like Classes, but with some differences of semantics. Imagine something like,

@name("Values of Squiggle Items")
interface MacrostrategyRelativeValues = {
  type = {
    fn: [string, string] => [dist, dist],
    coveredItems = string[],
    confidence: [string, string] => number,
    description: string => string
  }
  validate(e) = List.length(e) > 3
  toString(e) = "foobar"
  showAs(e) = e.fn
}

....
myRelativeValueEstimate = new MacrostrategyRelativeValues({
  fn: {|a,b| [3 to 10, 5 to 20}
)}

myRelativeValueEstimate -> getType // MacrostrategyRelativeValues
myRelativeValueEstimate -> MacrostrategyRelativeValues.toString // presents as string. 

....

@name("Distribution")
interface Distribution = {
  type = {
    pdf: number => number,
    inv?: number => number
  }
  ...
}


@name("TimeSeriesForecast")
interface TimeSeriesForecast = {
  type = {
    fn: date => number,
    integral?: date => number
  }
  ...
}


@name("Person")
interface Person = {
  type = {
    fn: date => number,
    integral?: date => number
  }
  ...
}

Maybe we could later simplify somehow.

I love Type Classes with Haskell, but feel safer with leaning more on Modules/Classes. Modules arguably are more scalable/composable (type classes can conflict with each other in weird ways), and probably have an easier learning curve.