A Node.js hacker asks what Haskell can do to stay relevant.

Re:A Node.js hacker asks what Haskell can do to stay relevant. by gawi on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @10:21PM (#2681367)

This is funny. I'm the person having submitted the question on StackOverflow. KirinDave just assumed I was a Node.js hacker (which is absolutely not true!). I really wanted to understand how Haskell is planning to attack the >10k-100k connections problem. The question was just an excuse to talk about the Haskell-way.

Personally, I think Node.js offers a regressive programming model and I'm concerned about too many peoples diving into it. Ryan Dahl is a very smart guy, doing a nice job and is greatly responsible for the success of Node.js. The rumors goes he would have been tempted to do something with Haskell first but he stepped back as he was not familiar enough with GHC. Actually, that not a rumor, that's what he said: http://bostinnovation.com/2011/01/31/node-js-interview-4-que...

The problem with Haskell is that Haskellers are very smart peoples (...smart peoples again!). They became very comfortable with some hard to grasp concepts for programmers having a more conventional pedigree and might underestimate the education effort required in order to attract more programmers. Most of them are not necessarily focused at creating a more accessible language but rather explore new FP concepts (which is great, BTW). Things need to change in university classes first.

So you have potentially hard to maintain callback code on the node.js side and monad/lazyness/FR to master on the Haskell side. Nevertheless, from a skill-improvement point of view, I think the Haskell option is a much better investment.

Back to my Scala book now... :)

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Re:A Node.js hacker asks what Haskell can do to stay relevant. by KirinDave on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @11:00PM (#2681489)

I did just assume, and I apologize if that is offensive to you. But you have to admit, this title is pretty provocative. ;)

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Re:A Node.js hacker asks what Haskell can do to stay relevant. by nandemo on Wednesday June 22, 2011 @03:50AM (#2682177)

Dave, I had seen the Stackoverflow post before so I was surprised when I clicked the link here and got there, because your title misrepresents the question.

I thank you for posting it here because it has indeed led to interesting discussion. But please consider not editorializing titles in a way that can lead to flame wars.

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Re:A Node.js hacker asks what Haskell can do to stay relevant. by KirinDave on Wednesday June 22, 2011 @12:44PM (#2683918)

I didn't think I was editorializing, and I apologized after it became clear I had misinterpreted the author. I knew the concept was controversial and interesting, so I posted it (and it was both interesting and controversial).

I'm afraid AccurateFuturePrediction.hs doesn't compile on OSX due to the size limits, so my ability to avoid this sort of gaffe in the future is limited.

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Re:A Node.js hacker asks what Haskell can do to stay relevant. by gawi on Wednesday June 22, 2011 @12:08PM (#2683766)

No offense, it's just funny ;) Provocative titles are good, they create a debate. It's true that I was playing the devil's advocate.

Long title would be "Hey you Haskell guys, everybody is thrilled about node.js, why don't you explain how to achieve high scalability in Haskell without sacrificing the program structure. C'mon guys, I know you can!"

If Haskell is leading the way, they should have some response about node.js, right? Whether or not this can be mainstream and deployed everywhere is another question. I totally respect Haskeller position regarding the experimental/research status of the language.

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Re:A Node.js hacker asks what Haskell can do to stay relevant. by jamesbritt on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @11:21PM (#2681544)

But the SO post says nothing about anything "staying relevant." It's simply, "What is the Haskell response to Node.js?" with some follow-up.

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Re:A Node.js hacker asks what Haskell can do to stay relevant. by cageface on Wednesday June 22, 2011 @12:42AM (#2681765)

Haskell is a great vehicle for cutting edge language research. What's the rush to push it into production coding? Why not let the better ideas trickle down into more pragmatic languages (Scala) and leave the Haskell implementors free to experiment?

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