If functional programming is so great, why is it still niche? We have a product that can practically eliminate runtime errors, make refactoring much easier, lighten the testing burden, all while being quite delightful to use. What’s the hold up?

One factor is that we make things artificially hard to learn, sometimes with a seemingly pathological glee.

So one of my primary goals is for Elm to be extraordinarily easy to learn and use productively. I want a new user to start playing with real code in minutes. I want programmers to feel confident in Elm in a few days. This talk will demonstrate some concrete cases where Elm uses language design, library design, terminology, and culture to accelerate learning and ultimately help people make delightful products.