I have been introduced to Haskell by a (former) colleague, Dave Wile of
USC/Information Sciences Institute. I am evaluating Haskell for use in a
component oriented environment geared toward manufacturing.
I have downloaded: "The Gentle Introduction...", the Haskell 1.4 report,
the associated library document, the Hugs system, and a paper comparing
prototyping in Haskell with other languages. I have spent a few days
running some demos and learning about Haskell. I plan to spend much more
time on this evaluation in the next few weeks. Some of the key questions I
have are:
1) JAVA -- Are there any plans to compile Haskell into byte codes for
execution on the Java Virtual Machine? The Java issue is very important.
2) CORBA --How does the concept of objects or agents play in the Haskell
community? Here I am (loosely) referring to an agent as a free running
process that does things including receiving messages (or method
invocations) from others. My interest here is trying to see how Haskell
programs fit or can be fit into the Corba model.
3) Scripting language -- We bumped into Haskell while looking for a
scripting tool in which it was "easy" to write expressions and "high" level
statements that one would like to make "outside" of a programming
environment. Scripting languages like Perl, Basic, etc. look just like
programming languages to me; Perl is undisciplined and Basic is weak. Will
engineers be able to deal with Haskell? Is there a strategy in which an
engineer can learn a useful subset of Haskell, and grow into it as need be?
I am unconvinced by arguments such as "this perfectly ordinary Yale
graduate student learned Haskell in just 8 days."
4) Concurrency -- I saw that one of the compilers supported Concurrent
Haskell. I don't recall seeing any mention of it in any of the material I
have. Have I missed it?
I was a Lisp' er in a former life and believe that Haskell might well fill
the bill for the group I am working for. I have several colleagues who
think I'm wasting my time, that applicative languages are impossible for
non-mathematical people, that no one has ever heard of Haskell, etc., etc.
I need all the political help I can get.
If anyone has time, I would love to talk about this over the phone. I'm
perfectly happy to carry on an email dialog. In the meantime I will learn
more about Haskell on my own.
Thanks,
David Wilczynski [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Pacific Software Solutions (310)372-0333
1911A Ernest Ave. fax (310)372-2103
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
