Why should we use Haskell?

Haskell is a functional programming language and this one feature helps it stand out amongst other languages when it comes to developing and maintaining large software projects. Let’s understand the difference between a purely functional programming language and the languages that are based on an imperative programming paradigm. So, usually, the programs are written in a language that follows the sequence of instructions given to them when executing. Now, the status of these instructions can change depending upon the changing nature of these variables.

However, in a functional approach, the value of the variable remains fixed. And the software does not give any direct command to the computer on how to get the job done, rather the problem of the solution is described. In this, variables hold a permanent value that cannot be easily changed. So, no direct commands are given and functions serve the purpose of calculating something and are interested in returning the result.

Why is Haskell preferred?

It has a lot of unique points. From a commercial and efficient point of view, the productivity of the developer increases manifold. The code is easy, short, and clear. It also provides ease of maintenance. Let’s talk about some reasons in detail.

1. Static Types- Like Java, it has a type-checker that catches the bugs early at the development stage minimizing the obstacles while running the program in the final stage or hiccups caused when it reaches over to the quality assurance department. This feature helps in validating the code during the development process and at the same time, the developer can study the data model encoded in types.
2. Provides Versatile toolset- Haskell facilitates in writing statically typed programs with support for algebraic data types, class-based polymorphism, handling variations of type families and equalities and polymorphism at the same time.
3. The vast ecosystem it encompasses- It has a huge open-source library which nine out of ten times would have the solution to your problem. It has 14000 packages and a segregation of package versions that ensure compatibility among the libraries, which might score to 2000 packages.
4. Native Code- It is a great choice if you need high performance throughout the data processing as Haskell is compiled directly to native machine code. The compiler, as experienced, provides efficiency in executing and optimizing the code.
5. Memory Safety- Haskell manages its memory quite proficiently, thanks to automatic memory management. What happens to manual memory management written in C and C++ is leakage, memory-related bugs, and buffer overflow. It has become an essential trait in writing secure software.
6. Pure functions and Immutable Data- Yes, you got it right! Haskell’s design centers around these two and makes a promising language for writing correct software. Through this, managing mutable data is minimized.
7. Concurrency- We know it is complex and involves a lot of issues. However, Haskell has straightforward Green Threads with facilitation provided by libraries like async and stm which makes writing concurrent applications a cakewalk.
8. Metaprogramming- Template Haskell is a feature that is used for compile-time evaluation and to automate boilerplate generation, Hence, it supports the abstract syntax tree.

Is Haskell better than Python?

Well, that is a complicated question. We know the eminence of Python and Haskell has different qualities that make it stand out. One can incline towards Python because it is easier to learn than Haskell. After all, it is a combination of both functional and object-oriented language.

There are different parameters on which one can compare these two languages. Let’s attempt to understand a few of them.

As discussed earlier, Haskell is a purely functional language, its parametric polymorphism resembles the C++ template that makes it more powerful. However, there are side effects of Haskell, as it also engages in procedural programming support, that it becomes a bit unsuitable.

One cannot incline towards python because similar issues, however in optimization are felt due to its combinatorial language.

Now, Haskell is statically typed, and Python is dynamically typed which leads to its pros and cons. The advantage of statically typed language is that every variable and expression can be known before runtime and that becomes a fundamental part of it. Also, the compilers and interpreters are smarter than Python, hence eclipsing it here for this feature.

The other reason for Haskell’s rise in popularity is that it aces optimization due to its native-code compilation, making it faster than Python at any given instance.

As discussed previously of the ease with which one can learn Python, Haskell comes with a bit of complexity due to its functional language. The learning curve is different as Haskell is more popular in academic circles. However, it is important to note that the syntax isn’t that different and after learning Haskell, other languages become fairly easy.

So, if you are a beginner- definitely go for Python and then switch to Haskell. If you are well-versed in the programming world, it would be great professionally if you equip yourself with Haskell as its increasing demand and proficiency in the programming world. And as it comes to saying which one is the better out of the two- I guess, you would have got your answer by now.