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I taught myself Haskell because people say it improves you as a programmer. I didn't see that, but I have a math PhD so maybe I'm just too familiar with abstra

by xamuel 10y ago

I taught myself Haskell because people say it improves you as a programmer. I didn't see that, but I have a math PhD so maybe I'm just too familiar with abstract types to gain new insight from Haskell. As a language, it's sterile. You can tell it was designed by committee.

dorfsmay 10y ago
Are you still using it? If not, what did you switch to for expressive, "fast" (faster than python) language?
- xamuel 10y ago
  No not still using it. I use C or q (as in kdb+) when I want speed and expressiveness. Python if I want quick easy prototypes. If you think Haskell is a weird language that challenges what you think about programming, it's nothing compared to q! :)
  - dorfsmay 10y ago
    Not looking for a challenge, it's more like python is often too slow, and it spoiled me, I find every other language too verbose and missing expressiveness. I've started looking at Haskel as the possible solution here.
the_af 10y ago
> As a language, it's sterile. You can tell it was designed by committee. This remark is puzzling. How do you tell if a language is sterile?
- xamuel 10y ago
  Hard to put a finger on it but it lacks a certain "playfulness" which real-world languages have. It's like the difference between Lojban/Esperanto (artificially constructed spoken languages) and English/Spanish. English/Spanish are "imperfect" but their warts are the results of thousands of years of culture (and may not be imperfections after all, they may be a case of some kind of coding theory emerging organically)
  - feanaro 10y ago
    That's surprising since "playful" is exactly how I would experience how I perceive Haskell. I guess it only goes to show how worthless subjective impressions usually are. In any case, I think suggesting Haskell isn't a "real-world" language comes of a bit trollish, even though you probably didn't mean it like that.
  - the_af 10y ago
    I must agree with feanaro: Haskell IS a playful and experimental language. Its unofficial motto is "avoid success at all costs", which should tell you something about the playfulness of its community. As for what you learn from it... you say you didn't see any gains? I take this to mean in your previous languages you already programmed in a functional style, with purity, referential transparency and lazy-by-default evaluation? I find that hard to believe :)

by xamuel 10y ago

dorfsmay 10y ago

Are you still using it? If not, what did you switch to for expressive, "fast" (faster than python) language?

xamuel 10y ago
No not still using it. I use C or q (as in kdb+) when I want speed and expressiveness. Python if I want quick easy prototypes. If you think Haskell is a weird language that challenges what you think about programming, it's nothing compared to q! :)
- dorfsmay 10y ago
  Not looking for a challenge, it's more like python is often too slow, and it spoiled me, I find every other language too verbose and missing expressiveness. I've started looking at Haskel as the possible solution here.

the_af 10y ago

> As a language, it's sterile. You can tell it was designed by committee. This remark is puzzling. How do you tell if a language is sterile?

xamuel 10y ago
Hard to put a finger on it but it lacks a certain "playfulness" which real-world languages have. It's like the difference between Lojban/Esperanto (artificially constructed spoken languages) and English/Spanish. English/Spanish are "imperfect" but their warts are the results of thousands of years of culture (and may not be imperfections after all, they may be a case of some kind of coding theory emerging organically)
- feanaro 10y ago
  That's surprising since "playful" is exactly how I would experience how I perceive Haskell. I guess it only goes to show how worthless subjective impressions usually are. In any case, I think suggesting Haskell isn't a "real-world" language comes of a bit trollish, even though you probably didn't mean it like that.
- the_af 10y ago
  I must agree with feanaro: Haskell IS a playful and experimental language. Its unofficial motto is "avoid success at all costs", which should tell you something about the playfulness of its community. As for what you learn from it... you say you didn't see any gains? I take this to mean in your previous languages you already programmed in a functional style, with purity, referential transparency and lazy-by-default evaluation? I find that hard to believe :)