It seems to me that it would be possible to create a NonEmptyList type in any language simply by inheriting the regular List type and making sure the constructor and the mutators (if any) enforce the non empty constraint. Presumably a language that supports dependent typing would make the definition of such a type easier (I'm not familiar with any language that supports dependent typing).
However, the problem I see with that kind of fine grained typing is that you would have to convert types in many places as many lists that have to be non empty in one place might be naturally empty in other places. If that is the case, the potential defect is just moved to some other part of the code.
However, the problem I see with that kind of fine grained typing is that you would have to convert types in many places as many lists that have to be non empty in one place might be naturally empty in other places. If that is the case, the potential defect is just moved to some other part of the code.