In Episode 51 of the Nextflow podcast, Phil Ewels and Ben Sherman discuss Nextflow's upcoming strict syntax - a significant evolution bringing clearer error messages and a more consistent language framework.

They explore key changes including the separation of code from declarations, removal of for/while loops in favour of operators, and changes to type annotations. Learn how these improvements lay the groundwork for better developer experiences with features like static type checking and auto-formatting.

The episode covers migration timelines, practical steps to prepare, and how these changes will ultimately lead to more robust, maintainable pipeline code. Check out the Nextflow docs for the "Updating Nextflow Syntax" guide to start preparing today.

00:00 Podcast Ep51: Strict Syntax
00:07 Welcome and introduction
01:20 Language server background
04:18 Syntax sugar is just empty calories
06:50 Bespoke language syntax
08:20 To DSL3 or not 2 DSL
10:59 Nextflow versioning
15:13 Diving into specifics
16:08 Mixing statements with script declarations
19:19 Better inspect command
21:08 Custom Classes
23:32 For loops, while and switch
26:02 Standard library
26:56 Type annotations
28:49 addParams
32:26 Process script section
34:20 Moving into lib/
36:36 Configuration syntax
41:14 Relieving pressure from the config
43:38 Timelines
44:55 The gain for the pain
47:54 Next steps
48:43 Conclusion