AFAICS Python would also support well a functional style
of programming (although this appears to me to be more
of a state of mind, so the language might not matter so much ;)
Victor
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Van Peteghem <Mark.Van.Peteghem@telenet.be>
Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:05 am
Subject: [Csnd] Re: Haskell for computer music
To: csound@lists.bath.ac.uk
> Intrigued by that discussion about Haskell, I read quite a bit
> about it,
> and it looks like a very nice language. But I obeyed a rule in
> IT that
> says that when you can choose from a number of tools, you
> shouldn't only
> consider the features of the tools, but also which tool you (or
> your
> team) knows best. Learning a new tool may be interesting, but is
> also
> time consuming, especially if it is a very different way of
> doing
> things, like Haskell is.
>
> For CSound I'm just fine with Python, I don't see what Haskell
> could
> offer that makes things so much better that I can justify
> spending a lot
> of time on it. Actually I know C++ much better, but you can
> store Python
> code in a Blue project, a big plus, so I use Python.
>
> Mark
>
> Michael P Mossey wrote:
> > A couple months ago, I queried the list about what languages
> they find
> > most useful for computer music. I was disenchanted with
> Python, and
> > thinking of switching to Lisp or Haskell.
> >
> > I started a study of Haskell two months ago. Oh my goodness!
> As a
> > functional language, it is vastly different than the
> imperative
> > languages most programmers are used to. Its fundamental
> concepts are
> > difficult to understand. Programs in Haskell are often very
> short, and
> > to the beginner's eye cryptic as all hell. It's not easy to
> grasp WHY
> > a Haskell program does what it is supposed to do.
> >
> > Learning Haskell, you get a good exposure to the mathematical
> > literature that forms the basis of functional programming.
> VERY
> > different experience than learning Python or Java.
> >
> > However, the good news is that all this stuff is supposed to
> be
> > intuitive and fit together neatly, once you learn it. We tend
> to
> > forget how much experience went into learning imperative
> programming,
> > and don't realize how much of that learning has to be
> replicated in
> > undertaking functional programming.
> >
> > I've made some progress. Maybe the biggest progress is that I
> don't
> > tremble in fear when I see statements like "Applicative
> functors are
> > also pointed when defined on a monoid."
> >
> > But, I'm beginning to wonder if there is really a practical
> payoff for
> > what I want to do. I would be interested in hearing from the
> member(s)
> > on this list who use Haskell.
>
>
>
> Send bugs reports to this list.
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body
> "unsubscribe csound"
Dr Victor Lazzarini, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Music,National University of Ireland, Maynooth