[Haskell-cafe] New slogan for haskell.org

Henning Thielemann lemming at henning-thielemann.de
Fri Oct 5 08:42:43 EDT 2007


>> On 10/4/07, Don Stewart <dons at galois.com> wrote:
>>> It was raised at CUFP today that while Python has:
>>>
>>>     Python is a dynamic object-oriented programming language that can be
>>>     used for many kinds of software development. It offers strong
>>>     support for integration with other languages and tools, comes with
>>>     extensive standard libraries, and can be learned in a few days. Many
>>>     Python programmers report substantial productivity gains and feel
>>>     the language encourages the development of higher quality, more
>>>     maintainable code.

I think that this description is very unspecific and I guess everyone 
claims that for his favourite language.


>>> Here's some quick points:
>>>
>>>     General purpose: applications from OS kernels to compilers to web dev to ...
>>>     Strong integration with other languages: FFI, and FFI binding tools
>>>     Many developer tools: debugger, profiler, code coverage, QuickCheck
>>>     Extensive libraries: central library repository, central repo hosting

Until here people will say: "Ah nice, like C++ I use for many years now."


>>>     Productivity, robustness, maintainability: purity, type system, etc. Parallelism!

'type system' is something where C derivatives and scripting languages are 
weak - but their users count this as advantage. I want to raise the 
question again, whether it is reasonable to move convinced C and Perl 
programmers to Haskell - They will want to write C and Perl style programs 
using Haskell. I think it is better to attract the people who find 
'filter' and 'map' good in Python and want to get to know the original 
language.




On Thu, 4 Oct 2007, Don Stewart wrote:

> Yep, its similar to the elevator pitch, but a little shorter, and
> mentions why as a programmer this is worth your time.
>
> I'm not sure "monadic effects" is terribly motivating for someone who's
> heard about Haskell, and just wants to get things done faster, and more
> reliably -- which is really what Haskell can be about.

My experience is, that 'purely functional' made me curious because I 
wanted a nice, elegant language which is not cluttered with much patches. 
'Monadic effects' sounded strange and made me even more curious.


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