I’ve seen several people worrying that Haskell is too obscure, which causes them to incorrectly assume Cardano might not be widely adopted. So, let’s clear up this misconception. . . .
Haskell is fantastic from a usability/efficiency/QC perspective and it’s the only language that I’ve really enjoyed learning and using. However, the team is working on Cardano’s EILE virtual machine, which integrates the powerful K-Framework and provides a translation layer to compile any language into fast smart contract code. This will enable any programmer to use virtually any structured programming language (procedural, functional, scripted, etc.) to build their smart contracts without having to learn Haskell.
So, we don’t need to worry about the relative obscurity of Haskell being an impediment to Cardano’s widespread adoption.
I’ve also heard Charles talk about something called “Yella” (I’m not sure how it’s spelled.), which I think is Cardano’s future virtual machine for CardanoCL. However, there’s no information about this anywhere that I can see. So, I’m looking forward to some clarification on the development of this functionality when the team is ready to share it with us.
Long ago, when Alexander the Great asked the mathematician Menaechmus for a crash course in geometry, he got the famous reply “There is no royal road to mathematics.” Where there was no shortcut for Alexander, there is no shortcut for us. Still, the fact that we have access to computers and mature programming languages means that there are avenues for us that were denied to the kings and emperors of yore.
The purpose of this book is to teach logic and mathematical reasoning in practice, and to connect logical reasoning with computer programming. The programming language that will be our tool for this is Haskell, a member of the Lisp family. Haskell emerged in the last decade as a standard for lazy functional programming, a programming style where arguments are evaluated only when the value is actu- ally needed. Functional programming is a form of descriptive programming, very different from the style of programming that you find in prescriptive languages like C or Java. Haskell is based on a logical theory of computable functions called the lambda calculus.
One of the best on “lazy functional programming” that is Haskell.
Now stop spreading false information, Haskell rocks and now you all know it.
Usually It’ll take more time to learn Haskell as an other programming language.
But pay off will be valuable also. Because at least you’ll learn pure functional programming in general. This day Haskell takes more and more influence on design of other languages.
I got in love with Cardano for Haskell sake;-)
Regarding smart contract language I asked a question here, which unfortunately is still unanswered.
When you’re coming from years of writing imperative style, then functional programming is a tough nut to crack. At least it was for me, when I first got introduced to Haskell a few years ago. But it’s certainly not impossible as some people make it appear to be.
Haskell has a great many benefits, and so does functional programming in general.
I also do not think that Haskell is a barrier for widespread adoption.
