On Feb 26, 2009, at 1:36 PM, Jonathan Cast wrote:
On Thu, 2009-02-26 at 13:25 -0700, John A. De Goes wrote:
No, I hate C and will never use it again in my entire life unless
forced to at the point of a gun.
Why? Its libraries are far better, its editors are far better [1],
its
compilers are far better, its tool support is far better, it's
incomparably superior in every possible way to Haskell.
There are better languages than C with more libraries and better tools
(e.g. Java). I would chose one of those over Haskell for a commercial
product needing short time-to-market and a long shelf life. Even
though Haskell is a superior language, there are other, often more
important considerations for anything but hobby coding.
Except the relatively narrow criterion of the *language itself*.
Maybe
making languages better is a worthwile pursuit, then? Or do you still
think languages should be frozen in time[2] so the tools, compilers,
editors, libraries, etc. can undergo vast improvements?
I think to reap the benefits of a language, it must necessarily stop
evolving in ways that impose high costs on its user base.
[2] For the record: I'd be content to see a frozen production
language,
like Haskell, frozen in time; as long there's a credible other
evolveable language --- preferably one with zero backward-
compatibility
requirements w.r.t. Haskell 98 or current or past GHC.
Let me ask you this question: If I wanted a language like Haskell, but
which is "Enterprise ready", where should I turn?
My answer: Haskell. It's maturing and its slowed rate of evolution is
already having beneficial effects on other dimensions.
Re-designing a
purely function research language from the ground up would be neat ---
but then it wouldn't be Haskell at all, and I wouldn't use Haskell,
I'd
use the new language. If I thought I could realistically leave the
Haskell community, I wouldn't be nearly so opposed to Haskell's
continued slide into practicality.
Why do you think you'll have no where else to go if Haskell continues
moving away from being a research language? There are plenty of people
who would join you. I think you'd have far more company than you seem
to believe. And a fresh start, with absolutely zero requirements for
any backward compatibility, would open up many new directions.
Regards,
John A. De Goes
N-BRAIN, Inc.
The Evolution of Collaboration
http://www.n-brain.net | 877-376-2724 x 101
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