Andrew Coppin wrote:
Personally, I just try to avoid *all* language extensions - mainly because most of them are utterly incomprehensible. (But then, perhaps that's just because they all cover extremely rare edge cases?)
Haskell is an extremely rare edge case to begin with. Non-strict (most implementations lazy): rarely useful if you ask the mainstream. Static typing: extreme paranoia. Purely functional: vocal minority of edgy people. Haskell syntax: "map f xs" is utterly incomprehensible to both the mainstream "why not map(f,xs)" and the Schemers "why not (map f xs)". Great way to alienate everyone out there. Haskell is its own niche. Every aspect of it tries very hard to be alternative (as in "alternative medicine") to some existing camp (and therefore considered a nutcase by that camp), and the whole is alternative to all existing camps. Haskell is a truly edgy language.