On 2017-04-19 15:14, David McClain wrote:
Ah Yes… I do now remember the “Race for the 5th Generation”, us against Japan. Lisp against Prolog. That was a fad?
I have read Haskell being described as "what M-expressions where supposed to be". Granted, it's not compiled down to S-expressions – but to the comparably simple Core, so the analogy has a bit more substance than the visible sentimentality. At the same time, in a way, our type system is a kind of Logic Programming language. We state facts about our programs as well as rules how to derive new facts, and the type checker tries to prove our system to be either inconsistent or incomplete. The syntax is not as simple as Prolog's, but that's partly due to the domain, partly because our type language is a grown one. In other words: After their feud, Lisp and Prolog must have made up and spent a hot few nights together, probably in a seedy conference room in Portland. Haskell is one of the results. Is it a perfect blend of its parents' strengths? Ah, hell no. But no child ever is. Which leads me to the question: Why the hell isn't there a sitcom about programing languages yet? Cheers, MarLinn