Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Haskell VS Objective-C

Compare Haskell VS Objective-C and see what are their differences

Haskell logo Haskell

An advanced purely-functional programming language

Objective-C logo Objective-C

The primary programming language you use when writing software for OS X and iOS
  • Haskell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-01

We recommend LibHunt Haskell for discovery and comparisons of trending Haskell projects.

  • Objective-C Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-28

We recommend LibHunt Objective-C for discovery and comparisons of trending Objective-C projects.

Haskell features and specs

  • Pure Functional Programming
    Haskell emphasizes pure functional programming, meaning functions have no side effects. This leads to code that is easier to understand, test, and maintain.
  • Strong Type System
    Haskell's type system is strong and expressive, allowing developers to catch many errors at compile time. This results in more reliable code.
  • Lazy Evaluation
    Haskell uses lazy evaluation by default, which can lead to performance improvements by avoiding unnecessary computations and enabling the creation of infinite data structures.
  • Immutability
    In Haskell, data is immutable by default. This leads to simpler reasoning about code behavior and reduces bugs related to mutable state.
  • High-Level Abstractions
    Haskell provides powerful abstractions like monads, functors, and applicative functors, which can lead to more concise and expressive code.
  • Concurrency
    Haskell has excellent support for concurrency and parallelism through its lightweight threading model and software transactional memory, making it suitable for concurrent applications.
  • Community and Libraries
    Haskell has a dedicated community and a rich set of libraries and tools, which can help accelerate development and provide solutions to common problems.

Possible disadvantages of Haskell

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Haskell has a steep learning curve, particularly for developers who are new to functional programming or coming from imperative and object-oriented backgrounds.
  • Performance Concerns
    While Haskell can be efficient, its performance can sometimes lag behind other languages like C++ or Rust for certain use cases, especially those requiring low-level optimization.
  • Limited Industry Adoption
    Haskell is not as widely adopted in industry compared to languages like Java, Python, or JavaScript, which can limit job opportunities and community size.
  • Compilation Times
    Haskell's compilation times can be long, especially for large projects, which can slow down the development process.
  • Tooling and IDE Support
    While improving, the tooling and IDE support for Haskell is not as mature as for some other popular languages, potentially affecting developer productivity.
  • Complexity of Advanced Features
    Some of Haskell's advanced features, such as monads and type-level programming, can be complex and difficult to master, which can be a barrier for new developers.
  • Library Gaps
    Although Haskell has many libraries, there might be gaps or less mature libraries for some specific use cases compared to more mainstream languages.

Objective-C features and specs

  • Mature Language
    Objective-C has been around since the 1980s, which means it has a long history of use in Apple's ecosystem, leading to a wealth of documentation, resources, and a stable, well-understood language.
  • Dynamic Runtime
    Objective-C's dynamic runtime allows for a high level of flexibility, such as dynamically loading classes and methods, which can be beneficial in certain programming scenarios requiring runtime adjustments.
  • C Compatibility
    Objective-C is a superset of C, which means it retains all functionalities of C, allowing low-level manipulation and the ability to integrate existing C libraries easily.
  • Rich Library Support
    With strong ties to Apple's ecosystem, Objective-C has extensive support for native libraries like Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, enabling efficient iOS and macOS application development.
  • Proven Track Record
    Many successful applications have been built using Objective-C, illustrating its capabilities in handling complex and large-scale applications.

Possible disadvantages of Objective-C

  • Complex Syntax
    The syntax of Objective-C can be verbose and complex compared to modern languages, leading to a steeper learning curve for new developers.
  • Limited Adoption Outside Apple Ecosystem
    Objective-C is primarily used within Apple's ecosystem, limiting its applicability and adoption in other platforms or general software development.
  • Lack of Modern Features
    Compared to newer programming languages like Swift, Objective-C lacks some modern programming features such as type safety, which can lead to more runtime errors.
  • Memory Management
    Although ARC (Automatic Reference Counting) has simplified memory management, developers still have to be conscientious about memory usage compared to simpler garbage-collected environments.
  • Performance Considerations
    The dynamic nature of Objective-C can introduce performance overhead, as dynamic message sending is slower compared to static method calls in languages like Swift.

Haskell videos

Functional Programming & Haskell - Computerphile

More videos:

  • Review - Marloe Haskell Review
  • Review - Marloe Watch Company - Haskell - Watch Review

Objective-C videos

Welcome to Objective-C for Swift Devs!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Haskell and Objective-C)
Programming Language
72 72%
28% 28
OOP
63 63%
37% 37
Generic Programming Language
Learning Resources
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Haskell seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 21 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 mentions (21)

  • Is there a programming language that will blow my mind?
    Haskell - a general-purpose functional language with many unique properties (purely functional, lazy, expressive types, STM, etc). You mentioned you dabbled in Haskell, why not try it again? (I've written about 7 things I learned from Haskell, and my book is linked at them bottom if you're interested :) ). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Where to go from here?
    Where you go is entirely up to you. According to haskell.org, Haskell jobs are a-plenty. sigh. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Haskell.org now has "Get Started" page!
    Should they be part of haskell.org or something else? Source: over 2 years ago
  • Haskell.org now has "Get Started" page!
    Haskell.org now has a big purple Get Started button that takes you to a nice short guide (haskell.org/get-started) that quickly provides all the basic info to get going with Haskell. It is aimed for beginners, to reduce choice fatigue and to give them a clear, official path to get going. Source: over 2 years ago
  • dev environment for windows
    I just jumped into the wiki "Write Yourself a Scheme in 48 hours" which looks pretty good. (although some of the text explanation is hard to understand without context).. I used cabal to set up the starter project. Sublime editor seems to work OK and I just use the git Bash shell on windows to compile the program directly on the command line. So maybe this is all good enough for now (?). It seems installing... Source: over 2 years ago
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Objective-C mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Objective-C yet. Tracking of Objective-C recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Haskell and Objective-C, you can also consider the following products

Python - Python is a clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.

C++ - Has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing the facilities for low level memory manipulation

Rust - A safe, concurrent, practical language

Perl - Highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 26 years of development

JavaScript - Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions

Java - A concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible