[Haskell-cafe] Haskell in 3 Slides

Adam Turoff adam.turoff at gmail.com
Mon May 18 14:22:37 EDT 2009


On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 2:06 PM, Don Stewart <dons at galois.com> wrote:
> Exactly: focus on what the user wants to do (e.g. write multicore code,
> write safe code, write code quickly), not how that is achieved:
> "bounded parametric polymorphism" or "monads"

Parametric polymorphism is a big win, and highlights something
a user wants to do.  A *shallow* overview (one bullet, one
function) might fit.  Off the top of my head:

  incr :: (Num a) => a -> a
  incr = (+ 1)

Writing that operation in other languages is either (a) repeated for
every numeric type or (b) not typesafe.  Haskell is one of the few
that delivers both, and that is worth underscoring.  And it gives
you an opportunity to wave your hands and talk about type
inferencing without wasting room on a slide.

Don is right.  Forget the details.  Cover the capabilities,
not the mechanics.

-- Adam


More information about the Haskell-Cafe mailing list