[Haskell-cafe] Re: New slogan for haskell.org

[Simon Marlow]

Dan Weston wrote:
>  >  *  Static typing, which increases robustness by allowing the
>  >     compiler to catch many common errors automatically.
>  >
>  >  *  Type inference, which deduces types automatically and frees
>  >     the programmer from writing superfluous type signatures.
>  >
>  >  *  Higher order functions, polymorphism, and lazy evaluation,
>  >     which enable higher levels of abstraction and more
>  >     compositional, thus more reusable code.
> 
> "frees the programmer from writing superfluous type signatures" is a 
> weak (and dubious) advantage. I very often write "superfluous" type 
> signatures first (to be sure I know what I'm asking my program to do) 
> and only then let Haskell check it. Then I leave it in as good 
> documentation.

I agree with this.  Perhaps

Type Inference: deduces types automatically, so you don't have to clutter 
up your code with type declarations.  You can still write type declarations 
for documentation purposes, and these will be automatically checked by the 
compiler.


What I'd *really* like to see is a bunch of links on the front page leading 
to pages that describe the main differences between Haskell and some other 
language (C, Python, Java, C#, F#, ...).  The easiest way to grasp what 
Haskell is all about is by reference to a known baseline, and programmers 
tend to have different baselines.  e.g. the C page might start with 
"Haskell is a functional language", whereas the Python page might start 
with "Haskell is statically typed".  I guess this is similar to Ian's 
suggestion.


Cheers,
	Simon