[Haskell-cafe] Elevator pitch for Haskell.

[Don Stewart]

andrewcoppin:
> Michael Vanier wrote:
> >Awesome!
> >
> >I'm reminded of the IRC post that said that "Haskell is bad, it makes 
> >you hate other languages."
> 
> How true it is...
> 
> I've often thought about a sort of "elevator pitch" for Haskell. 
> However, every time I sit down to think about this, I come to the same 
> conclusion: Haskell isn't "ready" yet. It's sad but it's true. Think 
> about it; if you're a normal programmer trying to write real-world 
> programs, the very first things you're likely to want to do include:
> 
> * Create sophisticated GUIs.

gtk2hs

> * Read and write standard binary file formats. (Images, compressed 
> files, etc.)

Data.Binary, along with the host of *Codec* libs now on hackage.

> * Talk to a database.

There's 10 or so database libraries

> * Use various network protocols (possibly custom, possibly standardised).

See Data.Binary, and hackage.

> * Access the Windoze registry and play with COM stuff.

Harder, though people do do this on occasion.

> * Get system-specific file information (protection bits, modification 
> times, security information, etc.)

System.*

> * Query the OS. (How many CPUs? How much RAM? What is my IP address?)

System.* 

> 
> I don't know how to do any of that in Haskell. Some of it can be done, 
> just not very easily. Other items are, AFAIK, impossible.

All very doable, most trivially. Just not widely described in tutorials, perhaps?

-- Don