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The problem I have with this is Carmack is in the top 0.01% of developers so of course writing a game in Haskell is going to be within his grasp. For the rest o
by MedDev 13y ago
The problem I have with this is Carmack is in the top 0.01% of developers so of course writing a game in Haskell is going to be within his grasp. For the rest of us it's a huge exercise in mental gymnastics. I've written a few visualizations for data using Gloss (http://gloss.ouroborus.net/ http://gloss.ouroborus.net/) with Haskell and although it does "just work" when it does compile understanding how to manage state in a pure environment is an uphill learning experience to say the least.
- ademarre 13y agoMany medical techniques were probably pioneered by specialists and later adopted by general practitioners. The perceived difficulty of mastering pure functional programming for practical work might be a result of bias in the typical CS education experiences. That might shift as the value of pure functional programming gets more universally recognized.
- chongli 13y agoFor the rest of us it's a huge exercise in mental gymnastics. I've thought about this a lot and honestly, I think this is a good thing. Languages which are much less strict about types and mutation require huge mental gymnastics too, they just don't tell you about it. They let you happily continue on your merry way until some time at a later date you realize your program is a giant ball of mud and you have no idea how to change things without breaking it. Haskell forces you to deal with the hard problem of state up front in exchange for having a clear, maintainable program down the road.