2016-11-22 10:13:24 +00:00
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There was an image that made the rounds a while ago.
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<img src="/static/haskell-as-seen-by.png" alt="Haskell as seen by other language fans" style="max-width:100%">
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The joke being: haha, Haskell is only for super-geniuses like
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Einstein. There's lots to complain about in this chart, but I'm going
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to pick on the lower-right corner. Specifically:
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__Haskellers don't use Haskell because we think we're Einstein. We use
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Haskell because we know we aren't.__
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When I speak to Haskellers, the general consensus is: "I'm not smart
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enough to write robust code in a language like Python." We're not
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using Haskell because we're brilliant; we're using Haskell because we
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know we need a language that will protect us from ourselves.
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2016-11-22 10:49:12 +00:00
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That said, I should acknowledge that Haskell does have a steeper
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learning curve for most programmers. But this is mostly to do with
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unfamiliarity: Haskell is significantly different from languages like
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Python, Ruby, and Java, whereas by contrast those languages are all
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relatively similar to each
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other. [Great](https://haskell-lang.org/documentation)
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[educational](http://haskellbook.com/)
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[material](https://www.fpcomplete.com/haskell-syllabus) helps with
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this.
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You should set your expectations appropriately: it will take you
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longer to learn Haskell, but it's worth it. Personally, I use Haskell
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because:
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2016-11-22 10:13:24 +00:00
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* It gives me the highest degree of confidence that I'll write my
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program correctly, due to its strong, static typing
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* It has great support for modern programming techniques, like
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functional programming and green-thread-based concurrency
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* I can write more maintainable code in it than other languages
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* It has a great set of
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[libraries](https://haskell-lang.org/libraries) and
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[tools](https://haskell-lang.org/get-started)
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* It's got great performance characteristics for high-level code, and
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allows low-level performance tweaking when needed
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I'm certainly leaving off a lot of points here, my goal isn't to be
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comprehensive. Instead, I'd like to dispel with this notion of the
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Haskeller super-genius. We Haskellers don't believe it. We know why
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we're using a language like Haskell: to protect us from ourselves.
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