3 ms·

Why Python and Not Haskell?

3 points by agnishom 2y ago

ggm 2y ago
There's a lot of sunk cost in programming. How you think about problems and solutions. Learning new ways to think about abstraction and synthesis of a solution takes time. I go to syntax very quickly as well. To a literate fp person the syntax makes sense. To a neophyte its deeply confusing. I've asked Haskell programmers to speak lines of Haskell and the visible effort they go to, to use English to speak the syntax distinct from articulate the abstractions (which may well be simpler) is immense. The "can program in the imperative mode" thing is however important. You can. We should teach more people to do this.
- tome 2y ago
  > The "can program in the imperative mode" thing is however important. You can. We should teach more people to do this. I'm trying very hard to do this through by effect system Bluefin. More here: https://hackage.haskell.org/package/bluefin-0.0.14.1/docs/Bluefin.html https://hackage.haskell.org/package/bluefin-0.0.14.1/docs/Bl... https://h2.jaguarpaw.co.uk/posts/bluefin-all/ https://h2.jaguarpaw.co.uk/posts/bluefin-all/
- gsf_emergency 2y ago
  Apologies for being hard to parse-- low mental bandwidth.. The purpose of a language is to reduce the complexity (of whatever domains it's applied to) while maintaining the sophistication. lisp proved itself for building dynamic websites, APL-derivatives for certain slices of finance/banking, python for machine learning,Matlab for engineering simulations. What, to your knowledge, has Haskell similarly done ? (Fwiw I hope to see the "microsuccess" of pandoc or xmonad scaled.) Fingers crossed for Bluefin, though it still seems very niche
  - tome 2y ago
    > What, to your knowledge, has Haskell similarly done ? Haskell also has significant usage in "building dynamic websites" and "certain slices of finance/banking".
    - gsf_emergency 2y ago
      Ditto for Python. I expect those apps are more painful than for lisps so curry-connoiseurs do it because as ggm says, sunk costs :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923253 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923253 I had expected something along the lines of "technical interviews", or more charitably, "transpilers"

3 points by agnishom 2y ago

ggm 2y ago

There's a lot of sunk cost in programming. How you think about problems and solutions. Learning new ways to think about abstraction and synthesis of a solution takes time. I go to syntax very quickly as well. To a literate fp person the syntax makes sense. To a neophyte its deeply confusing. I've asked Haskell programmers to speak lines of Haskell and the visible effort they go to, to use English to speak the syntax distinct from articulate the abstractions (which may well be simpler) is immense. The "can program in the imperative mode" thing is however important. You can. We should teach more people to do this.

tome 2y ago
> The "can program in the imperative mode" thing is however important. You can. We should teach more people to do this. I'm trying very hard to do this through by effect system Bluefin. More here: https://hackage.haskell.org/package/bluefin-0.0.14.1/docs/Bluefin.html https://hackage.haskell.org/package/bluefin-0.0.14.1/docs/Bl... https://h2.jaguarpaw.co.uk/posts/bluefin-all/ https://h2.jaguarpaw.co.uk/posts/bluefin-all/
gsf_emergency 2y ago
Apologies for being hard to parse-- low mental bandwidth.. The purpose of a language is to reduce the complexity (of whatever domains it's applied to) while maintaining the sophistication. lisp proved itself for building dynamic websites, APL-derivatives for certain slices of finance/banking, python for machine learning,Matlab for engineering simulations. What, to your knowledge, has Haskell similarly done ? (Fwiw I hope to see the "microsuccess" of pandoc or xmonad scaled.) Fingers crossed for Bluefin, though it still seems very niche
- tome 2y ago
  > What, to your knowledge, has Haskell similarly done ? Haskell also has significant usage in "building dynamic websites" and "certain slices of finance/banking".
  - gsf_emergency 2y ago
    Ditto for Python. I expect those apps are more painful than for lisps so curry-connoiseurs do it because as ggm says, sunk costs :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923253 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923253 I had expected something along the lines of "technical interviews", or more charitably, "transpilers"