Imagine you have a problem for which you need virtual dispatch. In C++, you typically reach for inheritance. In Haskell, you typically reach for typeclasses. C

Imagine you have a problem for which you need virtual dispatch. In C++, you typically reach for inheritance. In Haskell, you typically reach for typeclasses. Comparatively, imagine you have a problem for which you need ad-hoc, but statically resolvable, overloads. In C++, you typically reach for templates. In Haskell, you instead typically reach again for typeclasses. This is what I mean when I say neither comparison is really closer than the other. Haskell couldn't replace typeclasses with templates, just as it couldn't replace them with objects.