On 18/12/2012, Peng Yu
For example, if I need to use regex a lot, I probably want to use perl rather than other languages, because perl is the best in terms of regex and have much influence on other languages that have support on regex. If I need to do a lot of statistics, I'd better use R, because there are already a lot of statical packages implemented in R. And if there is a statistical method, it is most likely to implemented in R first. If I want to implement matrix numerical algorithm, I'd better use Fortran.
Yes, and you must not use any other, ever. Seriously tho, it's foolish to choose a language for its libraries alone. The language itself is critical. Libraries can be foreign-bound or written afresh. Language features lose; they make it harder to learn, harder to compile, harder to change. Libraries win; if it has a poor design, well, find another library. Haskell mostly does well here, tho it has a few warts, e.g. if-then-else. And by the way, perl is $#+. Perl regex is broken: http://swtch.com/~rsc/regexp/regexp1.html Try this: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/regex-applicative I never used R or Fortran.
Is there an application area in which haskell is much stronger than other different languages?
Maybe. Why? Have you an application area in mind?