tree-shaking, the horticulturally misguided algorithm (blog post) (wingolog.org)
from armchair_progamer@programming.dev to programming_languages@programming.dev on 17 Dec 2023 19:55
https://programming.dev/post/7388634

I’m glad to work in compiled languages, where figuring out which types and functions can be removed without affecting the program is a decidable problem.

Except Java/Scala/Kotlin have reflection, so maybe not…still, it’s a lot easier to mark everything accessible from reflection, then mark everything accessible everywhere because a variable lookup itself is a form of reflection, and an arbitrary function call can modify or even un-define any of your in-scope variables.

#programming_languages