[Haskell-cafe] Is Haskell a 5GL?

[Ch. A. Herrmann]

Hi,

Henning Thielemann wrote:

> assembly language (Assembler ist deutsch :-)

for mysterious reasons it entered the English world.

>>3GLs: programming based on algorithms (C, Java, ...)
>>4GSs: domain-specific languages (SQL,...)
>>5GLs: automatic problem solving (Mathematica, Prolog,...)
>>          and/or visual programming (Visual Basic,...)
>>    
>>
>
>Visual Basic and Computer Algebra Systems in the same generation?
>  
>
Ok, let Visual Basic be a 3GL.

>>Haskell's laziness would in principle permit programming in a style
>>akin to Prolog, e.g., for parser combinators.
>>The question is: how strong is the influence of laziness in everyday
>>Haskell programming?
>>    
>>
>
>Actually, laziness allows me to formulate algorithms that look more like
>the specification of the problem than the solution.
>
That would be a 4GL.

> E.g., I can formulate
>the solution of a differential equation in terms of a power series or time
>series in that way. However I have to put some effort into formulating it
>in a way that works.
>
That's kind of developing an algorithm.
--
Christoph