"Lambda Dance", Haskell polemic, etc. on O'Reilly site

[Dejan Jelovic]

Jerzy Karczmarczuk wrote:

> Over and over again the same silly song, by a person who - visibly -
> had never anything to do with functional languages, who thinks now
> about hiring some C and java programmers living in Belgrade

I don't understand how you deduced I "never had anything to do with
functional languages"? Any how is it relevant to the subject at hand that
I'm hiring Java and C++ (not C) programmers in Belgrade?

> but who
> writes such silly, incompetent things as:
>
> > And there is an air of staleness: where new versions of these other
> > languages appear frequently, the Haskell community is offering you
> > Hugs98.

I don't see why what I said is silly or incompetent? The Haskell Compiler
and Interpreters page at haskell.org suggests Hugs98 for newcomers. While
you and I know that the latest version of Hugs has been released two weeks
ago, a curious visitor will wonder why there isn't Hugs 2001.

And the Haskell website is updated rarely in contrast with, say, the Python
website.

> Delovic points out that some languages became "immensely" popular,
> as e.g. Ruby, and that Haskell is marginal.  Hm. this extremely
> orthodox Japanese essence of O-O programming may have some practical
> merits, especially those which come from shameless borrowing from
> Eiffel, Sather, Clu and Common Lisp, but calling Haskell "marginal"
> or "obscure" informs us not what is Haskell, but who is Jelovic.

Compared to the usage of C++, Java or Python, the usage of Haskell is
_marginal_. Visit the computer section of your local bookstore if you need
to be reminded of that.

BTW, you seem to be well-informed about who this Jelovic is. Why don't you
share that knowledge with us? :)

> He accuses the Haskell community of not providing libraries...

Two errors here:

1. I didn't accuse anybody of anything. I was just curious about why people
aren't using Haskell and started to think about it. There's a saying among
Program Managers at Microsoft that "thinking is writing". I subscribe to
that. I often write about things I think about in order to explore the
issues. If I think other people might be interested in the end result, I
post it.

2. I didn't say that the Haskell community has not provided the libraries. I
said the Haskell community hasn't provided the libraries together with the
compiler in one standard distribution. I think that's needed in order to
lower the barrier to entry.

> Perhaps there is *one* point worth mentioning: the necessity to
> publish papers about Haskell far from such journals as JFP or HOSC,
> but to try to reach DrDobbs etc.

Funny. You said at the beginning of your message that there is "NOTHING"
serious there. :)

Dejan
http://www.jelovic.com