Re: [Haskell-cafe] Re: "Haskell is a scripting language inspiredby Python."

On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 6:42 AM, Ketil Malde wrote:

Luke Palmer writes:

...

 To us, scripting meant short, potent code that rolled off your fingers and into the computers mind, compelling it to do your job with reverence to the super power you truly are.

Just when I thought, oh, there are two definitions for "scripting language", another one pops out.  So scripting languages can be three things:

1) A language for controlling ('scripting') an application (e.g. TCL, VBA) 2) A language for controlling the running of various applications   (e.g. shell scripts) 3) An agile language for making short programs (e.g. Perl)

More definitions of scripting language:

 a) too slow to do real work  b) Also they "don't scale well"

I think Haskell can be fast enough to do 'real work', and although I haven't really written any large programs in Haskell, I don't see why it should scale worse than other languages.

here's another definition: "a script is what you give the actors, but a program is what you give the audience" -- Ada Lovelace according to Larry Wall http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Larry_Wall#The_State_of_the_Onion_11 Like most Larry quotes, it is immediately loveable. one of Haskell creators calls Haskell an "advanced scripting language": http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/emeijer/ErikMeijer.html