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Haskell From First Principles VS Hy

Compare Haskell From First Principles VS Hy and see what are their differences

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Haskell From First Principles logo Haskell From First Principles

A Haskell book for beginners that works for non-programmers and experienced hackers alike.

Hy logo Hy

Hy is a wonderful dialect of Lisp that’s embedded in Python.
  • Haskell From First Principles Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-01-11
  • Hy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-30

Haskell From First Principles features and specs

  • Comprehensive Coverage
    The book offers a thorough introduction to Haskell, starting from the basics and building up to advanced topics, making it suitable for beginners and those new to functional programming.
  • Hands-On Approach
    The book includes numerous exercises and examples that allow readers to practice and apply what they have learned, reinforcing their understanding of Haskell concepts.
  • Clear Explanations
    The authors provide clear and step-by-step explanations of complex topics, which helps in demystifying Haskell's syntax and functional programming paradigms.
  • Self-Sufficient
    It is designed to be a standalone resource for learning Haskell, meaning that readers do not need to rely on additional books or external resources to understand the content.

Possible disadvantages of Haskell From First Principles

  • Lengthy
    Some readers might find the book too long and detailed, which can be daunting for those looking to quickly gain a working knowledge of Haskell.
  • Pacing
    The book's pace can feel slow, especially for readers who already have some programming experience or knowledge of functional programming concepts.
  • Dense Content
    Certain sections can be dense and challenging to navigate, particularly for complete newcomers to programming or those not accustomed to functional styles.
  • Limited Real-World Applications
    The focus is largely on teaching Haskell concepts rather than demonstrating their direct application in real-world scenarios, which may not appeal to readers looking for practical examples.

Hy features and specs

  • Python Interoperability
    Hy seamlessly integrates with Python, allowing you to use the entire Python ecosystem while writing your code in a Lisp-like syntax. This interoperability makes it easier for developers familiar with Python to experiment with Lisp's syntax and ideas.
  • Lisp Syntax and Macros
    Hy provides Lisp's powerful macro system and syntax, enabling more expressive and concise code. The ability to create macros can lead to highly customizable and domain-specific solutions.
  • Readability
    For those familiar with Lisp, Hy offers increased readability due to its minimal syntax and symbolic expressions. This can lead to more straightforward reasoning about the code and reduced syntactic noise.
  • Compiles to Python
    Hy code is compiled to Python bytecode, allowing it to run on any environment where Python is available. This ensures good performance and compatibility with existing Python tools and utilities.

Possible disadvantages of Hy

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For developers not familiar with Lisp, Hy's syntax and concepts (like macros) can be difficult to grasp initially. This can slow down development time as developers need to learn new paradigms.
  • Limited Adoption
    Hy is not as widely adopted or supported as some other languages or even other Lisp implementations. This can lead to less community support, fewer third-party libraries written specifically for Hy, and potentially more difficulty finding solutions to problems.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging in Hy can sometimes be more challenging because errors may occur in the compiled Python code rather than the original Hy code, which can complicate traceback and error understanding.
  • Macro Overuse
    While macros are a powerful feature, their misuse can lead to code that is hard to read and maintain. This can become a con if developers do not exercise restraint and best practices in their use.
  • Performance Overhead
    While Hy compiles to Python, the added layer of abstraction and translation may introduce small performance overheads compared to writing natively in Python, especially for performance-critical applications.

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Category Popularity

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Programming Language
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API Tools
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Haskell From First Principles should be more popular than Hy. It has been mentiond 87 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Haskell From First Principles mentions (87)

  • Concurrency in Haskell: Fast, Simple, Correct
    I'm not going to sell you on anything. All of the things you've mentioned are true. Loosely, the multitude of string types and the state of the standard library come from the same place: the language is 30+ years old! There are many warts to be found. However, if you decide to start learning, the path is hard, especially if you come from a non-computer-science background like me. I attempted to learn Haskell... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Functional Programming Self-Affirmations
    I'm a big fan of Haskell Programming from First Principles. That's where more advanced ideas like Monads started clicking. https://haskellbook.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Ask HN: What resources do you recommend for learning Haskell?
    Haskell Programming from First Principles[1] is extremely comprehensive, covering everything from lambda calculus to IO. For further self-learning, it might be interesting to learn about the underlying mathematical concepts, such as category theory. A deep dive into the workings of a Hindley–Milner type system might also significantly demystify some of Haskell's typing magic. [1] https://haskellbook.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Ask HN: What resources do you recommend for learning Haskell?
    I really liked https://haskellbook.com/. It’s long, but has exercises after each chapter which I found very helpful. The first chapter is about Lambda Calculus which is kind of a meme at this point, but learning it actually did help me a lot to grok how Haskell programs are meant to fit together. Other than that, just doing some basic side projects and leaning about how to use Cabal effectively should get you there. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Ask HN (Personal): Has anyone here ever tried throwing everything away?
    Yeah! Six months after graduating from Northwestern University I quit my cushy 6-figure WFH job to move to Finland as a quasi-illegal immigrant. (I say "quasi-" because "STEM undergrad from a top university moving to a much poorer country" is, ah, not what you usually think of.) I was unemployed for over a year due to passport issues, living in a tiny vacation town of ~10,000 close to the Arctic Circle, and used... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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Hy mentions (9)

  • Python's “Disappointing” Superpowers
    Hy: https://docs.hylang.org/en/stable/ I tend to stick to vanilla python though, mainly because Hy is too much of an hassle for my use cases. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Why Lisp?
    Q: is there any game dev happening in Lisp? A: https://kandria.com/ and https://itch.io/jam/lisp-game-jam-2022 Q: how do I write a website with Lisp? A: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/web.html#easy-routes-hunchentoot and https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/manual/html_node/Web-Examples.html Q: do I have to use emacs for developing Lisp? A: No, https://github.com/vlime/vlime and... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • How trying new programming languages helped me grow as a software engineer
    I really like Hy because it's fully inter-operable with Python. But its documentation is insufficient for anything moderately complex, and its tooling support is pretty basic. If Hy were well documented and supported I'd use it for all my throwaway scripts and prototyping -- today I use Python for that. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Every programmer ever.
    You're looking for https://docs.hylang.org/en/stable. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Val on Programming: What makes a good REPL?
    I've been using the Hy REPL[0] whenever I've wanted to drop into a python REPL. The lack of whitespace formatting with Hy is great, but it still has access to all of python's libraries. [0] - https://docs.hylang.org/en/stable/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

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