Why I Support the Haskell Foundation • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#11

Post by rich_sasha » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 8:54 AM UTC

ookdatnog wrote: post #8

rataata_jr wrote: post #3

I really love haskell, but I cant understand why everything has to be about raical diversity.

I think there is a meaningful difference between the predicates "is about racial diversity" and "mentions racial diversity in one paragraph near the bottom".

I read this as, "everything ends up having a link to racial diversity".

I also don't get it, but where I live, race isn't the principal eigenvector of literally everything.

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#12

Post by kqr » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 9:03 AM UTC

rataata_jr wrote: post #3

I really love haskell, but I cant understand why everything has to be about raical diversity.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that everything has to be about racial diversity? I look at the front page of HN, and very few submissions are about racial diversity. Even in this very article (which is a tiny slice of the discussion on HN) I see very little about racial diversity.

In what sense did you mean everything has to be about racial diversity?

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#13

Post by kungito » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 9:33 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #9

Why can't FOSS projects get structural support from governments, the way science is funded?

Science is funded by money from projects. You write a project proposal and apply for funding. Isn't ghc funded by money from Glasgow University or something like that?

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#14

Post by mrmonkeyman » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 9:41 AM UTC

Ice_cream_suit wrote: post #5

rataata_jr wrote: post #3

I really love haskell, but I cant understand why everything has to be about raical diversity.

I had to go back and reread the article to find the reference you objected to. The article has 25 paragraphs. Near the bottom of the article, one line in one paragraph, mentioned racial diversity in passing. Is that really a problem for you ?

Why is there even a paragraph? It's weird. Like mentioning naked mole rats. Sure, it's only one paragraph and I have nothing against naked mole rats in particular but what's the point?

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#15

Post by frou_dh » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 9:49 AM UTC

xvilka wrote: post #6

Article mentioned Apple with their own mainstream language, I suppose Swift. But it's far from being mainstream, didn't gain the desired attention and failed miserably with TensorFlow. Thus, it's a niche language making no sense outside of the Apple ecosystem. Is not a serious contender to Haskell.

I would love to know some actual numbers. It does seem like Swift adoption on server/Linux by people who aren't already Mac/iOS developers is horrendously low.

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#16

Post by Santosh83 » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 9:50 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #9

Why can't FOSS projects get structural support from governments, the way science is funded?

You're going in a dangerously socialist direction here. Let the free market sort it out, and may the best man (billionaire) win. We get innovation & progress that way.

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#17

Post by mark_l_watson » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 9:57 AM UTC

xvilka wrote: post #6

Article mentioned Apple with their own mainstream language, I suppose Swift. But it's far from being mainstream, didn't gain the desired attention and failed miserably with TensorFlow. Thus, it's a niche language making no sense outside of the Apple ecosystem. Is not a serious contender to Haskell.

While my preferred languages are Common Lisp, Clojure, Haskell, and Scheme, I must say that Swift is pretty nice.

Apple’s supplied deep learning models are useful and easy to use, and compiling on an IPad Pro or M1 Mac is fast, even with the type inferencing. Right now I am slogging through a 50 hour SwiftUI 2 class.

I am disappointed that TensorFlow for Swift has been mothballed, but Julia and Python are probably much better options for deep learning. BTW, Julia is a fairly good general purpose language also. I have played with little bits of Julia code for text manipulation, REST, SPARQL queries, etc.

EDIT: since this is a Haskell thread, pardon the plug: you can grab a free copy of my Haskell book at https://markwatson.com

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#18

Post by mananaysiempre » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 10:01 AM UTC

kungito wrote: post #13

amelius wrote: post #9

Why can't FOSS projects get structural support from governments, the way science is funded?

Science is funded by money from projects. You write a project proposal and apply for funding. Isn't ghc funded by money from Glasgow University or something like that?

Some contributors are, but Simon PJ is at Microsoft Research and Simon Marlow used to be too (in case you were wondering where F# came from).

Also, funding projects not people is a relatively recent notion; e.g. most fundamental physics breakthroughs of the 20th century were done by people who didn’t have to write grant applications.

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#19

Post by rscho » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 10:30 AM UTC

rich_sasha wrote: post #11

ookdatnog wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a meaningful difference between the predicates "is about racial diversity" and "mentions racial diversity in one paragraph near the bottom".

I read this as, " everything ends up having a link to racial diversity". I also don't get it, but where I live, race isn't the principal eigenvector of literally everything.

Yes, but you do have Netflix and CNN where you live, don't you? So then it's your problem too! :-p

Re: Why I Support the Haskell Foundation

#20

Post by truth_ » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 11:02 AM UTC

jhvkjhk wrote: post #2

> I’ve lost count of the stories I have heard from others about how our community welcomed them when they needed a friend, felt alienated and alone, doubted themselves, or felt like they couldn’t make it in the world. Wow, I never thought a programming language community can help people overcome negative feelings. These storeis are really nice.

Much like novels and poetry, math and programming have sincerely contributed to my happiness.

It is not that I can't socialize or don't have friends, it's just that I don't like what most people do (like watching sports, and talking about uninteresting things, etc.) And save some specific people, I feel burned out after spending time with other people. I am known to many as an extremely sociable, and friendly person. I just don't like it.

On top of that, being heretically progressive (truly progressive, e.g. criticizing and disliking all religions and all patriarchy- Christian, Islamic, and Hindu- not toeing the modern woke liberal agenda), I cannot freely express myself except in front of my parents, SO, and about two friends.

In such a life, programming brings immense bliss. I profoundly enjoy poetry, and novels, but they are something you are consuming. I love to create things, modify and change things.

Programming, whether in microcontrollers for hobby, or solving business problems with innovative solutions, or solving project Euler problems, I feel immense joy. If programming did not exist, my life would have been significantly worse.