What is the best usage of haskell in terms of build-in capabilities or external libraries?
Hi, When a language is selected for a project, a practical matter is what the language provides. 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. After reading some wiki pages of haskell, it is not clear to what area haskell is really good for. One strong point seems to be a testbed for trying new languages. But this seems to be the case for other functional languages as well. Is there an application area in which haskell is much stronger than other different languages? -- Regards, Peng
On Tue, 18 Dec 2012, Peng Yu wrote:
After reading some wiki pages of haskell, it is not clear to what area haskell is really good for. One strong point seems to be a testbed for trying new languages. But this seems to be the case for other functional languages as well.
Is there an application area in which haskell is much stronger than other different languages?
Difficult to say, since Haskell wants to be a general purpose language. Haskell is strong in writing correct software. Thus you might phrase it like: Haskell is strong in applications where correctness counts.
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?
participants (3)
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Henning Thielemann -
Peng Yu -
Strake