[Haskell-cafe] A very edgy language (was: A very nontrivial parser)

[Albert Y. C. Lai]

Andrew Coppin wrote:
> Personally, I just try to avoid *all* language extensions - mainly 
> because most of them are utterly incomprehensible. (But then, perhaps 
> that's just because they all cover extremely rare edge cases?)

Haskell is an extremely rare edge case to begin with.

Non-strict (most implementations lazy): rarely useful if you ask the 
mainstream.

Static typing: extreme paranoia.

Purely functional: vocal minority of edgy people.

Haskell syntax: "map f xs" is utterly incomprehensible to both the 
mainstream "why not map(f,xs)" and the Schemers "why not (map f xs)". 
Great way to alienate everyone out there.

Haskell is its own niche. Every aspect of it tries very hard to be 
alternative (as in "alternative medicine") to some existing camp (and 
therefore considered a nutcase by that camp), and the whole is 
alternative to all existing camps. Haskell is a truly edgy language.