<div>I have not used Haskell to write large scale program, but I am certainly interested to know the answer to these questions.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Can Haskell offer the following as Pythoner boasts?</div>
<div>1. can be used for many kinds of software development. (some may argue yes, but different kinds from what python is good for.)</div>
<div>2. It offers strong support for integration with other languages and tools (FFI? Is the support strong?)</div>
<div>3. comes with extensive standard libraries (this is a yes, and is getting better every day)</div>
<div>4. and can be learned in a few days (very unlikely, maybe a few months to a year)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>What is Haskell good for? </div>
<div>* Domain Specific Language (who needs it? other than academics and Wall Streeter?)<br>* smaller program and much less bugs</div>
<div>* concise program logic</div>
<div>* program that can be reasoned (is that the reason Haskell module comes with so few comments and documentation?)</div>
<div>* highly reusable code (due to higher order function and type class?)</div>
<div>* clear distinction between functional and imperative (is this really an advantage? almost everything I deal with is IO, network, and db related, what is left for purely functional?)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>A person/team has to be convinced of these "high-level" questions before he can decide to bet his project on Haskell. That is the thought process I am struggling through right now.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>steve</div>
<div><br> </div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Dec 11, 2007 9:12 PM, <<a href="mailto:gwern0@gmail.com">gwern0@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">FWIW to the discussion about changing the main page, I was reading the CUFP paper and I saw some germane comments (and the writer is apparently one Noel Welsh, whose name I don't see in the thread); the context is a discussion (pg 17) of various members or potential members of the Haskell community and how supported they are:
<br><br> "What are the needs of the potential programmer? People program to solve prob-<br> lems; so there had better be a clear statement of what kinds of problem the<br> language is good for. The Python community does a good job of this on
<br> <a href="http://python.org/" target="_blank">python.org</a>: "Python is a dynamic object-oriented programming language that can<br> be used for many kinds of software development. It offers strong support for<br>
integration with other languages and tools, comes with extensive standard<br> libraries, and can be learned in a few days."<br><br> Compare this with the equivalent from <a href="http://haskell.org/" target="_blank">
haskell.org</a>: "Haskell is a<br> general purpose, purely functional programming language featuring static<br> typing, higher-order functions, polymorphism, type classes, and monadic<br> effects. Haskell compilers are freely available for almost any computer." If
<br> you understand all that, you don't need to be here: you're already a Haskell<br> programmer."<br><font color="#888888"><br>--<br>gwern<br></font><br>_______________________________________________<br>Haskell-Cafe mailing list
<br><a href="mailto:Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org">Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org</a><br><a href="http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe" target="_blank">http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe</a><br><br>
</blockquote></div><br>