PL3.1 - Hidden implementation details make understanding difficult

Theme

PL3 - Transparency

Description

The higher the abstraction level from the actual implementation is in a language, the less ability participants have to improve their understanding by reading the source code.

As an example, Jayvee provides a TableTransformer block that made understanding unclear to S0.

block IsPubliclyFundedColumnAdder oftype TableTransformer {
    inputColumns: ['traeger_art'];
    outputColumn: 'publiclyFunded';
    
    use: IsPubliclyFunded;
}

Because there is no way to actually find out how the TableTransformer is implemented, it is unclear if the inputColumn is consumed or not.

Representative Quotes

Sometimes it is not quite clear what the blocks exactly do especially in the details (example: does the TableTransformer delete/consume the input column?)

• S0

It (Jayvee) has some level of difficulty because of the structure of the functions, I do not know what to expect inside a function.

• S21