On Feb 26, 2009, at 1:36 PM, Jonathan Cast wrote:
On Thu, 2009-02-26 at 13:25 -0700, John A. De Goes wrote:
No, I hate C and will never use it again in my entire life unless forced to at the point of a gun.
Why? Its libraries are far better, its editors are far better [1], its compilers are far better, its tool support is far better, it's incomparably superior in every possible way to Haskell.
There are better languages than C with more libraries and better tools (e.g. Java). I would chose one of those over Haskell for a commercial product needing short time-to-market and a long shelf life. Even though Haskell is a superior language, there are other, often more important considerations for anything but hobby coding.
Except the relatively narrow criterion of the *language itself*. Maybe making languages better is a worthwile pursuit, then? Or do you still think languages should be frozen in time[2] so the tools, compilers, editors, libraries, etc. can undergo vast improvements?
I think to reap the benefits of a language, it must necessarily stop evolving in ways that impose high costs on its user base.
[2] For the record: I'd be content to see a frozen production language, like Haskell, frozen in time; as long there's a credible other evolveable language --- preferably one with zero backward- compatibility requirements w.r.t. Haskell 98 or current or past GHC.
Let me ask you this question: If I wanted a language like Haskell, but which is "Enterprise ready", where should I turn? My answer: Haskell. It's maturing and its slowed rate of evolution is already having beneficial effects on other dimensions.
Re-designing a purely function research language from the ground up would be neat --- but then it wouldn't be Haskell at all, and I wouldn't use Haskell, I'd use the new language. If I thought I could realistically leave the Haskell community, I wouldn't be nearly so opposed to Haskell's continued slide into practicality.
Why do you think you'll have no where else to go if Haskell continues moving away from being a research language? There are plenty of people who would join you. I think you'd have far more company than you seem to believe. And a fresh start, with absolutely zero requirements for any backward compatibility, would open up many new directions. Regards, John A. De Goes N-BRAIN, Inc. The Evolution of Collaboration http://www.n-brain.net | 877-376-2724 x 101