Re:Reflections on Using Haskell for My Startup
by rowanG077 on Friday February 19, 2021 @10:27AM
(#26194141)
This is true. I really love Haskell but I can still get some prototype or small script up and running faster in Python.
But that speed flips once you have a larger system and need to maintain it.
Re:Reflections on Using Haskell for My Startup
by agentultra on Friday February 19, 2021 @11:37AM
(#26194871)
With enough experience the speed flips around again. I often use Haskell to prototype things now instead of JS or Python because I don't have to deal with run-time type errors or undefined and the like. I can just write out the types, add some instances, compose things together and get feedback from the compiler if I'm on the right track. For me it's a much faster feedback loop than JS or Python.
Re:Reflections on Using Haskell for My Startup
by rowanG077 on Friday February 19, 2021 @05:38PM
(#26198962)
It's not really about productivity in the language itself. It's more about the library ecosystem. Numpy and scipy are just so good and nothing really compares. I'm not skittish on writing the algorithm I need myself in Haskell. But when I'm prototyping and quickly trying stuff it's just so much faster if I can call a function and be done with it.
Re:Reflections on Using Haskell for My Startup
by WJW on Friday February 19, 2021 @12:51PM
(#26195754)
I still wonder about this. I'm competent enough at Haskell to have made several additions to GHC itself, though I readily admit I'm no SPJ. I also believe that for a general purpose program, Haskell _should_ be a good choice. But in practice I make mostly web apps and no amount of "write down the types then fill in the gaps and compose it all together" can replace the amount of scaffolding that things like Rails give me.
Not the author, but my reading of his motivations was that the "challenging to learn, but extremely fun to write" part is way more important to them than the "best general purpose language". If your main motivation is to make as much money is as little time as possible then JS or Rails might get you off the ground sooner (although Haskell might catch up in the long run when the type system really starts paying off).
If you enjoy programming in Haskell and are looking to have a good time while building your startup, more power to you for using the language you like.