Hacker News Reader

Compared to lisp? Ok fine. Syntax doesn't get more simple than Lisp. But compared to JavaScript? C++? C#? Haskell is top tier when it comes to syntactic and conceptual elegance. The biggest problem is tooling, I would say.

View on HN

I could not agree less. People used to call Python “executable pseudocode” - in that spirit, Haskell is executable pseudo-math. If you’ve done enough higher math that a professor’s whiteboard notation feels natural to you, then Haskell might feel like a reasonable approximation of that style. Otherwise: it’s line noise.

(I write Haskell professionally)

That's what I felt with MLite, my intro to ML languages (A quick start in Ocaml barely counts, so didn't configuring XMonad back in the day).

It's like declaring math statements, observations and rules as if it were a Math textbook.

https://www.t3x.org/mlite/index.html

I don't think:

"Haskell: more elegant than Javascript and C++" would make a good promotional motto.

That's like bragging how prettier you are than Danny Trejo.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com