[Haskell] Haskell versus Lisp

[Christopher Dutchyn]

> From: Glynn Clements [mailto:glynn at gclements.plus.com] 

> In that regard, Lisp and Haskell are almost opposite 
> extremes, with more conventional languages inbetween. 
> Haskell's safety and consistency can get in the way, while 
> Lisp's freedom can be quite unsafe and inconsistent.

I disagree with your safety distinction.  Haskell and Scheme are both
extremely (and I believe, equally) safe ... (Common lisp does seem to offer
lots of type holes).  The key difference between Haskell and Scheme is that
Haskell supplies more guidance earlier -- you can supply a (simple/limited)
proof that your program doesn't go wrong, and have it checked in advance.
Scheme offers no way to provide an advance proof, but it still checks at
execution time.

Chris Dutchyn		Software Practices Lab
cdutchyn at cs.ubc.ca