Associated Effects: Flexible Abstractions for Effectful Programming

Explore a 19-minute video presentation from the PLDI 2024 conference introducing associated effects, a novel programming language feature that enhances the flexibility of type classes in abstracting over function effects. Learn how Matthew Lutze and Magnus Madsen from Aarhus University demonstrate the increased expressive power of combining type and effect systems with type classes. Discover how associated effects enable abstraction over total and partial functions, immutable and mutable data structures, and implementation of adaptors combining type classes with algebraic effects. Examine the practical application of associated effects in the Flix programming language, including the refactoring of its Standard Library to incorporate 11 type classes with associated effects and 28 new type class instances. Gain insights into the potential impact of this feature on generic programming, ad-hoc polymorphism, and effect systems in modern programming languages.