Prism: An Impure Functional Language With Typed Effects

Programming Languages, Functional Programming, Type Systems(stephendiehl.com)view on HackerNews
prismfunctional programmingeffectstype systemsalgebraic effectsrow polymorphism

Author: azkalam

Date: 7/5/2026

Article Summary:
The article introduces Prism, a proof-of-concept functional compiler that models effects with modern types inspired by OCaml, Haskell, and Koka. It discusses how Prism's effects are row polymorphic, union structurally across calls, and can be handled by a handler that gives them meaning.