macOS Haskell

[Bill McEnaney]

Hi everyone,

Haskell is my favorite programming language. So I wonder what you think of it. You may not want to read the whole article you'll find at (http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Why_Haskell_matters). But please compare the C++ version of quicksort to the Haskell version of it. The difference will help explain why I would recommend Haskell to beginning programmers and why I don't recommend C-like languages. Thanks for your thoughts.

Bill

 

[Cromulent]

I've always wanted to learn Haskell and indeed have a book on it. But I haven't had the chance to sit down and really bash out a session with it. That and Erlang are the two languages I'd like to learn but haven't really been able to motivate myself enough to do it.

Frankly though I am so ignorant of functional programming that I can't really think of a decent first project that will make me go "Wow! Why have I been wasting so much time on imperative programming?". If you can suggest one I'd be happy to hear it.

 

[Bill McEnaney]

I know what you mean about ignorance, Cromulent. Functional programming is new to me. But reading about it convinces me that I've always reasoned the way functional programmers need to reason. So FP comes naturally to me. I've been language shopping for years, searching for the language ideal for the way my mind works. Prolog and functional languages are great for me because I'm always watching for the essences of things, essences you can describe in definitions that look something like this: "For every ojbect O, O is an integer if and only if . . ." Prolog is wonderful for describing definitions. See what I got for specializing in logic when I earned my philosophy degree.

Oops! I'm digressing. Oh well, I began this thread, and I'll say anything I feel like saying in it.

What application would I recommend Haskell for to evoke a "Wow!"? How about compiler construction? Haskell's parser combinators make parsing astoundingly easy. In Curry, a functional logic programming language, you enjoy the benefits of functional programming along with many benefits of Prolog. In case you haven't noticed, I love functional programming and logic programming.

Maybe a moderator should rename this thread to "Haskell, etc.," since I can't seem to stay on topic.

I've always wanted to learn Haskell and indeed have a book on it. But I haven't had the chance to sit down and really bash out a session with it. That and Erlang are the two languages I'd like to learn but haven't really been able to motivate myself enough to do it.

Frankly though I am so ignorant of functional programming that I can't really think of a decent first project that will make me go "Wow! Why have I been wasting so much time on imperative programming?". If you can suggest one I'd be happy to hear it.