Type classes have become a cornerstone of statically-typed functional programming, powering abstractions like monoid and monad. Yet, type classes often have generalized names, which don’t reflect their purpose in specific domains; and they incur higher learning costs, especially when emulated in languages without them.

In this presentation, John De Goes discusses the pros and cons of using type classes, and presents a systematic method for building powerful functional components that do not require type classes. Attendees will learn how to preserve the benefits of principled, algebraic functional programming, without forcing type classes on coworkers or users.

A mathematician by training but a software engineer by vocation, John A. De Goes has been professionally writing software for more than 25 years. John has contributed to dozens of open source projects written in functional programming languages, including ZIO, a library for asynchronous and concurrent programming in functional Scala. In addition to speaking…