Vigil: A programming language with eternal moral vigilance
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThe underlying idea here is a contract system, first pioneered by Bertrand Meyer in the programming language Eiffel[1] and then augmented with the ability to describe higher-order functions by Robby Findler[2]. PLT also strongly advocated the use of blame with contracts -- the ability to blame the responsible party (function) when a contract fails. My Masters thesis under Robby Findler was on guided random testing using higher-order contracts. I should note that an ordinary contract system does not delete your…
I've worked at Google on the Dart language for nearly eight years now, but Vigil will be the legacy that I'm remembered by. I love it. :)
Deleting offensive code was an "accidental feature" of ghc at one point: https://twitter.com/bos31337/status/116372971509121025 > The best ghc bug ever involved a dev version of the compiler deleting your source file if it contained a type error. https://git.haskell.org/ghc.git/commitdiff/434ef2b14b37df405...
> This is where Vigil sets itself apart from weaker languages that lack the courage of their convictions. When a Vigil program is executed, Vigil itself will monitor all oaths (implorations and swears) that have been made. If an oath is broken, the offending function (the caller in the case of implore and the callee in the case of swear) will be duly punished. > How? > Simple: it will be deleted from your source code. > The only way…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 4
- Total points
- 851
- Total comments
- 228
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-01-03 | Vigil: A programming language with eternal moral vigilanceFirst breakout · Best thread | factorialboy | 362 | 118 |
| 2015-04-02 | Vigil, the eternal morally vigilant programming language | avinassh | 1 | 0 |
| 2017-09-09 | Vigil, the eternal morally vigilant programming language | nikolasavic | 173 | 48 |
| 2019-07-16 | Vigil, the eternal morally vigilant programming language | alex_marchant | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-11-02 | Vigil, the eternal morally vigilant programming languageHall induction | BerislavLopac | 4 | 2 |
| 2020-11-06 | Vigil: The eternal morally vigilant programming language | headalgorithm | 9 | 0 |
| 2020-11-10 | Vigil: The eternal morally vigilant programming language | headalgorithm | 180 | 34 |
| 2023-09-03 | Vigil, the eternal morally vigilant programming languageLatest 20+ point return | alex_marchant | 121 | 25 |