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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Languages
  4. Languages
  5. Haskell vs MATLAB

Haskell vs MATLAB

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Haskell
Haskell
Stacks1.4K
Followers1.2K
Votes527
MATLAB
MATLAB
Stacks1.1K
Followers702
Votes37

Haskell vs MATLAB: What are the differences?

Key Differences Between Haskell and MATLAB

  1. Syntax and Paradigm: The most significant difference between Haskell and MATLAB lies in their syntax and programming paradigm. Haskell is a functional programming language that emphasizes declarative programming, where programs are expressed as mathematical functions and avoid side effects. On the other hand, MATLAB is a procedural programming language that follows an imperative programming paradigm, where programs are composed of a sequence of instructions.

  2. Type System: Another important distinction is the type system of Haskell and MATLAB. Haskell has a strong and statically typed system, which means that all expressions have a type that is checked at compile-time, reducing the likelihood of runtime errors. In contrast, MATLAB has a weak and dynamically typed system, where the type of a variable can change dynamically during runtime, making it more flexible but prone to type-related errors.

  3. Concurrency and Parallelism Support: Haskell surpasses MATLAB in terms of concurrency and parallelism support. Haskell provides native support for parallel programming, making it easier to express and exploit parallelism in programs. Additionally, Haskell offers libraries for concurrent programming, enabling easy creation of concurrent applications. In contrast, MATLAB lacks native support for parallel or concurrent programming, making it more challenging to develop efficient parallel algorithms.

  4. Application Domain: One of the key differences between Haskell and MATLAB lies in their respective application domains. Haskell is commonly used in academic and research environments, where its strong typing, pure functions, and formal verification techniques are highly valued. On the other hand, MATLAB is widely used in engineering and scientific domains, particularly for numerical analysis, data visualization, and prototyping.

  5. Development Environment: Haskell and MATLAB also differ in terms of their development environments. Haskell is typically developed using specialized Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as Haskell Platform, which provide advanced tooling and features specific to the Haskell language. In contrast, MATLAB comes with its own integrated development environment, which provides a rich set of tools for data analysis, plotting, and debugging.

  6. Availability of Libraries: The availability of libraries for specific functionalities also differs between Haskell and MATLAB. Haskell has a robust package manager called Cabal, which provides access to a large collection of libraries for various purposes. Although MATLAB has a significant number of built-in functions and toolboxes for scientific computing, its library ecosystem is not as extensive as Haskell's, making it more challenging to find ready-made solutions for specific tasks.

In summary, Haskell and MATLAB differ in terms of their syntax and programming paradigm, type system, concurrency and parallelism support, application domain, development environment, and availability of libraries.

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Advice on Haskell, MATLAB

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.

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Haskell
Haskell
MATLAB
MATLAB

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.

Using MATLAB, you can analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications. The language, tools, and built-in math functions enable you to explore multiple approaches and reach a solution faster than with spreadsheets or traditional programming languages, such as C/C++ or Java.

Statically typed; Purely functional; Type inference; Concurrent
-
Statistics
Stacks
1.4K
Stacks
1.1K
Followers
1.2K
Followers
702
Votes
527
Votes
37
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
  • 20
    Simulink
  • 5
    Functions, statements, plots, directory navigation easy
  • 5
    Model based software development
  • 3
    S-Functions
  • 2
    REPL
Cons
  • 2
    Does not support named function arguments
  • 2
    Doesn't allow unpacking tuples/arguments lists with *
  • 2
    Parameter-value pairs syntax to pass arguments clunky
  • 1
    Costs a lot

What are some alternatives to Haskell, MATLAB?

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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