[Haskell-beginners] Haskell described as a "rigid" language

[aditya siram]

Yes I would agree that rigidity and flexibility are closely related,
but I think in this case the connotation is more important.

Rigid can negatively connote an imposing of your will onto others, and
a general unwillingness to adapt to a situation or take advice.
Flexibility has the opposite connotation and in this light they are at
odds.

On the other hand rigid positively connotes rigor, having an
unwavering standard of quality. From this point of view something can
be rigid and flexible - and perhaps Haskell is best seen in this
light. It lets you do whatever you want so long as your ideas are
pretty clear but it isn't forgiving to fuzziness of thought. That is
frustrating to beginners like me whose thoughts are eternally fuzzy
but I know this is my problem and not the languages'.

-deech




On 5/18/10, Daniel Fischer <daniel.is.fischer at web.de> wrote:
> On Tuesday 18 May 2010 12:13:20, Colin Paul Adams wrote:
>> >>>>> "Edgar" == edgar klerks <edgar.klerks at gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>     Edgar> Probably dumb question, but was it the difference between
>>     Edgar> rigid and inflexible in this context (I am not native english
>>     Edgar> speaker)?
>>
>>     Edgar> Google define gives me this:
>>
>>     Edgar> Rigid means:
>>
>>     Edgar>   * incapable of compromise or flexibility * inflexible:
>>     Edgar> incapable of adapting or changing to meet circumstances; "a
>>     Edgar> rigid disciplinarian"; "an inflexible law"; "an unbending
>>     Edgar> will to dominate"
>>
>> Interesting. that's not what I would expect
>>
>> Wikipedia seems more on the ball to me.
>
> Could you elaborate a bit, please?
> Which articles in Wikipedia, for example (the disambiguation page for
> rigidity gives like explanations [excepting technical terms in
> mathematics], I haven't found an article for inflexible[ibility], the
> wiktionary definition is alike again)?
>
> I thought rigid and inflexible are fairly closely related, though not
> synonyms. Google define seems to agree.
>
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