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> Haskell is a language for experimenting, success is not their goal and it would remove resources to actual research. You rightfully point to Rust, which too

> Haskell is a language for experimenting, success is not their goal and it would remove resources to actual research. You rightfully point to Rust, which took a lot of inspiration from Haskell, but I think it's worth emphasizing just how much of the progress in programming languages in the last two decades was inspired by functional programming (many features were not invented in Haskell, but some like type inference were popularized by it). For example: proper type inference, algebraic data types (enums in Rust) and consequently option types, pattern matching, property-based testing, immutability by default, parametric polymorphism (generics), ad-hoc polymorphism (type classes/traits/...), first class functions (very old idea but only recently common in mainstream languages), ...

pjmlp 6y ago
I learned type inference in Caml Light, Haskell was still Miranda back then, and I bet any language designer of all major languages has similar backgrounds in regards to ML type inference. Even type classe ideas can be found in CLU, ML, Objective-C, before the paper that gave origin to their adoption in Haskell.
- Quekid5 6y ago
  For history buffs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley%E2%80%93Milner_type_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley%E2%80%93Milner_type_sy... was invented in 1969 (and rediscovered my Milner in 1978). AFAIK, that was the basis of type inference in many of the non-mainstream languages before they branched off into their own more powerful type systems.
brabel 6y ago
The Rust docs claim most things actually came from ML and OCaml: https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/influences.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/influences.html They only mention Haskell's type classes and type families as inspiring a Rust feature directly (traits).
- yen223 6y ago
  The original rust compiler was written in ocaml
- lostcolony 6y ago
  It's kind of alluded to, but, while FP languages, as a broad category, were the progenitor of a lot of different PL ideas, Haskell ended up implementing many of them in a single place. It's fair to say "we were influenced by (this other language that originated an idea)", but it's also fair "and Haskell also has that feature". Do it enough times, and you start to see why the claim that Haskell is important; being a research language it's able to have all of these ideas implemented in it in pursuit of its design goals, where other FP languages pick and choose in pursuit of a different one.
- tutfbhuf 6y ago
  I think it would be best to create a spin off of Haskell. A small subset with only the good parts of Haskell, few hand selected extensions, new prelude, with focus on performance, very easy tooling/build chain and use in production for businesses: "Production Haskell Lite".
hyperpallium2 6y ago
from lisp and ML, but yes, haskell is a white-coat language.
- p0nce 6y ago
  a white-collar language
  - hyperpallium2 6y ago
    no. white-coat as in white lab coat, i.e. a research language.

pjmlp 6y ago

I learned type inference in Caml Light, Haskell was still Miranda back then, and I bet any language designer of all major languages has similar backgrounds in regards to ML type inference. Even type classe ideas can be found in CLU, ML, Objective-C, before the paper that gave origin to their adoption in Haskell.

Quekid5 6y ago
For history buffs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley%E2%80%93Milner_type_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley%E2%80%93Milner_type_sy... was invented in 1969 (and rediscovered my Milner in 1978). AFAIK, that was the basis of type inference in many of the non-mainstream languages before they branched off into their own more powerful type systems.

brabel 6y ago

The Rust docs claim most things actually came from ML and OCaml: https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/influences.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/influences.html They only mention Haskell's type classes and type families as inspiring a Rust feature directly (traits).

yen223 6y ago
The original rust compiler was written in ocaml
lostcolony 6y ago
It's kind of alluded to, but, while FP languages, as a broad category, were the progenitor of a lot of different PL ideas, Haskell ended up implementing many of them in a single place. It's fair to say "we were influenced by (this other language that originated an idea)", but it's also fair "and Haskell also has that feature". Do it enough times, and you start to see why the claim that Haskell is important; being a research language it's able to have all of these ideas implemented in it in pursuit of its design goals, where other FP languages pick and choose in pursuit of a different one.
tutfbhuf 6y ago
I think it would be best to create a spin off of Haskell. A small subset with only the good parts of Haskell, few hand selected extensions, new prelude, with focus on performance, very easy tooling/build chain and use in production for businesses: "Production Haskell Lite".

hyperpallium2 6y ago

from lisp and ML, but yes, haskell is a white-coat language.

p0nce 6y ago
a white-collar language
- hyperpallium2 6y ago
  no. white-coat as in white lab coat, i.e. a research language.