From: Glynn Clements [mailto:glynn@gclements.plus.com]
In that regard, Lisp and Haskell are almost opposite extremes, with more conventional languages inbetween. Haskell's safety and consistency can get in the way, while Lisp's freedom can be quite unsafe and inconsistent.
I disagree with your safety distinction. Haskell and Scheme are both extremely (and I believe, equally) safe ... (Common lisp does seem to offer lots of type holes). The key difference between Haskell and Scheme is that Haskell supplies more guidance earlier -- you can supply a (simple/limited) proof that your program doesn't go wrong, and have it checked in advance. Scheme offers no way to provide an advance proof, but it still checks at execution time. Chris Dutchyn Software Practices Lab cdutchyn@cs.ubc.ca