On 00.01.27 15:33, D. Tweed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> scribed:
> [Hopefully not off-topic wrt Haskell]
> On Thu, 27 Jan 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > >> Look at the popularity of PERL
> > >> for example. That is one thing I will never understand.
> > I'm sure I will get flamed to a crisp for this, but...
> > I think PERL can be quite nice when you want a quick
> > hack that will do something useful.
Yes, Perl is a great prototyping language.
I'll try not to summon up the ghost of Haskerl, but Perl5
has certain bits and pieces of LISP mixed in it, like
closures. Mark-Jason Dominus has done some tongue-in-cheek
lambda calculus in Perl. Jenda Krynicky has created a Perl
module that implements a form of lazy evaluation. I think
that, with the right module or two, Perl coders could be
coaxed into functional programming, much like "gradual
vegetarians" are into giving up meat. Perhaps that's a bad
analogy...
Perl is very good for parsing text and juggling it about.
Besides being a professional Perl coder and an amateur
Haskell coder, I have a BA in linguistics and nearly enough
courses in philosophy and mathematics for minors in each.
I've been bouncing ideas back and forth in my mind about
Shaumyan's Applicative Universal Grammar and trying
different approaches to individual pieces of my problems
both in Haskell and Perl. Both languages are good use
pattern matching a great deal. But my Perl friends balk
at the apparent lack of semicolons in Haskell. :-)
> Another reason for the popularity of Perl is that it's
> _popular_ & _ubiquitous_. Although I like Haskell and
> some other languages (e.g., Mathematica, python, even
> C++) more than Perl, when I want to produce something
> that I hope other people in my lab will use/contribute
> fixes to, Perl's what I use (with much swearing &
> looking up in the manual). There's only a few machines
> with a Haskell system available on them, whereas
> everything has a Perl interpreter installed, and few
> people who are comfortable with the language.
With the spread of Linux and cheap RAM & multi-gig
harddrives, it has become easier to interest the programmers
that I know into trying out Hugs (or sometimes Gofer).
> Of course, what can be done to help the start an epidemic
> `infecting' people & machines with Haskell I don't know...
I've managed to pique some interest where I work, but
so far haven't peaked any fevers.
--
Christopher Milton [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wily Perl Coder and Haskell Enthusiast
Ich bin von Kaffeehausaufsuchkrankheit befallen.
Wo gibt's?
