Common Lisp vs Haskell vs Rust: What are the differences?

Introduction

The following Markdown code provides a comparison between Common Lisp, Haskell, and Rust. It highlights the key differences between them in a concise and structured manner.

1. Memory Management: Common Lisp uses a garbage collector to automatically manage memory allocation and deallocation. Haskell employs a lazy evaluation strategy and a garbage collector as well. On the other hand, Rust uses a unique approach called ownership and borrowing, where the compiler enforces strict rules to ensure memory safety without the need for garbage collection.

2. Type Systems: Common Lisp utilizes a dynamic type system, allowing flexible type conversions and runtime type checks. Haskell, in contrast, employs a static type system with strong type inference, leveraging type safety at compile-time. Rust also relies on a static type system, but it provides a powerful ownership system to prevent common memory-related errors.

3. Concurrency: Common Lisp supports concurrency through libraries like Bordeaux-threads and Clon. Haskell, however, has built-in support for concurrency and parallelism with its green threading model and Concurrent Haskell libraries. Rust offers lightweight thread creation and synchronization mechanisms, making it easy to write concurrent programs with safe memory sharing.

4. Immutability: Common Lisp does not enforce immutability by default, allowing mutable data manipulation. Haskell, on the other hand, promotes immutable values and encourages functional purity. Rust embraces both mutable and immutable data, but it enforces strict rules to prevent data races and provide safe concurrent access.

5. Syntax: Common Lisp has a rich and flexible syntax, providing extensive macros for language extension. Haskell has a more structured and concise syntax with a clear separation of pure and impure code. Rust has a syntax that blends systems programming with functional features, focusing on safety, performance, and expressiveness.

6. Error Handling: Common Lisp uses an exception-based system for error handling, allowing for flexible error propagation and handling with conditions and restarts. Haskell, influenced by mathematical foundations, employs purely functional error handling with monads and monadic fail methods. Rust adopts a combination of return values, error enums, and the Result type to handle errors in a safe and explicit manner.

In summary, Common Lisp emphasizes flexibility and extensibility, Haskell focuses on type correctness and functional programming paradigms, while Rust prioritizes safety, performance, and concurrent programming with its ownership model.