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The reason PHP got so popular is not it was included with Apache (?) but that it allowed to get shit done (GSD). That it got wildly popular is because GSD usua

by narag 13y ago

The reason PHP got so popular is not it was included with Apache (?) but that it allowed to get shit done (GSD). That it got wildly popular is because GSD usually just involved cutting some example code and pasting it on a web page changing some literal strings. The GSD thing I would also say of C++, Perl and Ruby. Java, not so much. That was another story. About Haskell, I don't know it. But I'm curious: does it allow you to GSD?

deleted 13y ago
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malandrew 13y ago
Not so much GSD, but it does allow you to GSR ... Get Shit Right. When correctness is a goal, languages like Haskell, Java and Ada are may be the better tool for the job. They impose restrictions the force you to design correctness (Haskell) or impose bureaucracy (Java) that make it more likely that code does what it is supposed to do. Haskell could achieve the same success as Java by teaching how to think about achieving correctness in thought. This often means teaching people to take the concrete concepts in a domain they know and move down successive levels of abstraction until you've broken down your problem into many pure functions. Few developers have given enough thought that this is second nature to them and fewer still are give jobs where they are afforded the luxury to do the necessary thinking up front about a problem to write things correctly the first time. Businesses demand to see progress. If a language doesn't allow to quickly show progress to your peers, it's less likely to see adoption. With haskell complete solutions may only come together at the end when you put all your provably correct functions together. Dynamic loosely typed language also lets you explore your problem space in code, whereas haskell forces you to explore your problem space as abstract ideas. When you don't know what you're building because the problem domain is foreign then the former feature is an asset for most developers.

by narag 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

malandrew 13y ago

Not so much GSD, but it does allow you to GSR ... Get Shit Right. When correctness is a goal, languages like Haskell, Java and Ada are may be the better tool for the job. They impose restrictions the force you to design correctness (Haskell) or impose bureaucracy (Java) that make it more likely that code does what it is supposed to do. Haskell could achieve the same success as Java by teaching how to think about achieving correctness in thought. This often means teaching people to take the concrete concepts in a domain they know and move down successive levels of abstraction until you've broken down your problem into many pure functions. Few developers have given enough thought that this is second nature to them and fewer still are give jobs where they are afforded the luxury to do the necessary thinking up front about a problem to write things correctly the first time. Businesses demand to see progress. If a language doesn't allow to quickly show progress to your peers, it's less likely to see adoption. With haskell complete solutions may only come together at the end when you put all your provably correct functions together. Dynamic loosely typed language also lets you explore your problem space in code, whereas haskell forces you to explore your problem space as abstract ideas. When you don't know what you're building because the problem domain is foreign then the former feature is an asset for most developers.