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  5. F# vs Haskell

F# vs Haskell

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Haskell
Haskell
Stacks1.4K
Followers1.2K
Votes527
F#
F#
Stacks779
Followers556
Votes399
GitHub Stars2.2K
Forks316

F# vs Haskell: What are the differences?

Key Differences between F# and Haskell

F# and Haskell are both functional programming languages that share many similarities, but they also have notable differences. Here are six key differences between F# and Haskell:

  1. Type Inference: F# has a more flexible and lenient type inference system compared to Haskell. F# allows a mix of statically inferred types and explicit type annotations, while Haskell relies heavily on type inference and requires explicit type declarations in many cases.

  2. Immutability: Immutability is a core principle in both F# and Haskell, but F# allows mutation through references or mutable variables with the mutable keyword, while Haskell strictly enforces immutability and does not have mutable variables.

  3. Pattern Matching: Pattern matching is a powerful feature in both languages, but F# supports active patterns which allows for more complex and expressive pattern matching capabilities. Haskell, on the other hand, uses guards in addition to pattern matching to provide more flexibility.

  4. Evaluation Strategy: Haskell uses lazy evaluation by default, meaning that expressions are not evaluated until their values are actually needed. In contrast, F# follows eager evaluation, where expressions are evaluated as soon as they are bound.

  5. Interop with Other .NET Languages: F# is part of the .NET ecosystem and seamlessly integrates with other .NET languages like C#, Visual Basic, and more. This makes it easier to leverage existing .NET libraries and frameworks in F# programming. Haskell, on the other hand, does not have native interoperability with other languages and ecosystems.

  6. Library and Framework Ecosystem: F# benefits from a larger library and framework ecosystem due to its integration with .NET. It can leverage a vast number of existing libraries and frameworks built for the .NET platform. While Haskell also has a rich ecosystem, especially for academic and functional programming domains, it may not have the same breadth of libraries and frameworks as F#.

In summary, F# and Haskell have differences in type inference, mutability, pattern matching, evaluation strategy, interoperability, and library ecosystems, making them suitable for different use cases and programming contexts.

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Advice on Haskell, F#

Timm
Timm

VP Of Engineering at Flexperto GmbH

Nov 10, 2020

Decided

We have a lot of experience in JavaScript, writing our services in NodeJS allows developers to transition to the back end without any friction, without having to learn a new language. There is also the option to write services in TypeScript, which adds an expressive type layer. The semi-shared ecosystem between front and back end is nice as well, though specifically NodeJS libraries sometimes suffer in quality, compared to other major languages.

As for why we didn't pick the other languages, most of it comes down to "personal preference" and historically grown code bases, but let's do some post-hoc deduction:

Go is a practical choice, reasonably easy to learn, but until we find performance issues with our NodeJS stack, there is simply no reason to switch. The benefits of using NodeJS so far outweigh those of picking Go. This might change in the future.

PHP is a language we're still using in big parts of our system, and are still sometimes writing new code in. Modern PHP has fixed some of its issues, and probably has the fastest development cycle time, but it suffers around modelling complex asynchronous tasks, and (on a personal note) lack of support for writing in a functional style.

We don't use Python, Elixir or Ruby, mostly because of personal preference and for historic reasons.

Rust, though I personally love and use it in my projects, would require us to specifically hire for that, as the learning curve is quite steep. Its web ecosystem is OK by now (see https://www.arewewebyet.org/), but in my opinion, it is still no where near that of the other web languages. In other words, we are not willing to pay the price for playing this innovation card.

Haskell, as with Rust, I personally adore, but is simply too esoteric for us. There are problem domains where it shines, ours is not one of them.

682k views682k
Comments
Markus
Markus

Feb 3, 2021

Needs adviceonKotlinKotlinJavaJavaF#F#

Hi there. I want to expand my coding toolset. So I want to learn a second backend language besides Kotlin. Kotlin is fantastic. I love it in every aspect, and I think I can never return to Java. And also why should I? It is 100% interoperable with java and can co-exist in every project.

So my question here is. Which language do you think will bring me more joy? I think F#; it is more like Kotlin. Then C# (it's more or like 100% java). But, let's say I learn F#. Is it 100% interoperable like Kotlin? can they live side by side? Can I, then, apply to .NET jr jobs after a while, for example, or is C# the holy cow? I would like to learn .Net.

If it is the worst and only C# is acceptable, then which language should I learn? Dart? Golang?

284k views284k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Haskell
Haskell
F#
F#

It is a general purpose language that can be used in any domain and use case, it is ideally suited for proprietary business logic and data analysis, fast prototyping and enhancing existing software environments with correct code, performance and scalability.

F# is a mature, open source, cross-platform, functional-first programming language. It empowers users and organizations to tackle complex computing problems with simple, maintainable and robust code.

Statically typed; Purely functional; Type inference; Concurrent
-
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
2.2K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
316
Stacks
1.4K
Stacks
779
Followers
1.2K
Followers
556
Votes
527
Votes
399
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 90
    Purely-functional programming
  • 66
    Statically typed
  • 59
    Type-safe
  • 39
    Open source
  • 38
    Great community
Cons
  • 9
    Too much distraction in language extensions
  • 8
    Error messages can be very confusing
  • 5
    Libraries have poor documentation
  • 3
    No good ABI
  • 3
    No best practices
Pros
  • 53
    Pattern-matching
  • 42
    Makes programming fun again
  • 38
    Type providers
  • 32
    Delightful
  • 30
    Frictionless
Cons
  • 3
    Microsoft tend to ignore F# preferring to hype C#
  • 2
    Interop between C# can sometimes be difficult
  • 1
    Type Providers can be unstable in larger solutions
  • 1
    Hype

What are some alternatives to Haskell, F#?

JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

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