Elm on The Backend
Elm is a functional language with a focus on simplicity and friendly error messages. Research in functional programming has made guarantees like "no runtime errors" possible since the 1970s, and I wanted to bring those kinds of guarantees to the browser in a way that would feel fun and accessible. Over the first decade of Elm usage, companies created webapps of up to 600k lines, confidently making large changes and additions to their codebase without introducing any runtime errors.
In 2019, after a decade of work, I felt like the remaining avenues for serious improvement all centered on details of the server and database. I began to explore what "Elm on the Backend" might look like. Can I store Elm types directly in the database? Can I guarantee no SQL injection? No N+1 patterns? Can I avoid GC pauses entirely? How will it work with frontend Elm code? This is the first real preview of this exploration so far!
NOTE: My goal is to get some early feedback from the in-person audience, so the video will be held back for now. I am not announcing a release, and the roadmap and this status update are still the primary documents for long-time Elm users to set expectations about this work.
