Ask HN: Deciding between Haskell & Lisp
Why I like Haskell:
- It compiles to native code (in GHC)
- It has a grammar
- The type system looks fascinating
- GHC also has native support for Literate Haskell files, which sound pretty useful considering the density of functional code.
- Lazy evaluation looks like a great way to pass around work for threads, or to model certain problems.
- It's nice how they handled side effects ala Monads.
Why I'm still curious about lisp:
- I don't know how to compare CLOS or macros against Haskell's functionality.
- Emacs. A single language across the board could be nice. I've been a long-time user for it, but mostly for imperative languages, org-mode, and latex.
- Connections to old hacker lore & culture. Tons of old stories on Lisp being wonderful, AI research, etc. Considering how simply lisp's survived & evolved over the last 50 (!) years, there's apparently a lot more to the whole thing than I can determine beforehand.
Of course, the real decision is which one becomes my first native functional language, and which one becomes the second. But it's really going to boil down to which one I choose for my next personal dev project. The second will have to be an experimentation platform, based on the lens developed in the former.
I suspect others are in the same situation (for differing reasons) and hope that this thread be useful to them as well.
Thanks in advance!
-Lally