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Zig VS Haskell

Compare Zig VS Haskell and see what are their differences

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Zig logo Zig

Zig is a general-purpose programming language designed for robustness, optimality, and maintainability.

Haskell logo Haskell

An advanced purely-functional programming language
  • Zig Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-19

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

  • Haskell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-01

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

Zig features and specs

  • Performance
    Zig aims to offer high performance comparable to C or C++, allowing it to be suitable for system-level programming.
  • Safety
    It includes modern safety features like optional type checking, bounds checking, and panic handling without a garbage collector.
  • Interoperability
    Zig has excellent interoperability with C, including the ability to directly include C headers and compile C code.
  • Build System
    Zig comes with an integrated build system that simplifies project configuration and management.
  • Cross-compilation
    The language has built-in support for cross-compilation, making it easier to develop for different target environments.
  • Simplicity
    Zig aims for simplicity and explicitness in its design, making code easy to read and understand.

Possible disadvantages of Zig

  • Maturity
    Zig is still relatively new and under active development, which means it may not yet have as many libraries or tools as more established languages.
  • Community
    The community is growing but still small compared to languages like C, C++, or Rust, which may make finding resources or support more challenging.
  • Learning Curve
    Newcomers to system programming or those used to managed languages might find Zig's low-level features and manual memory management challenging.
  • Ecosystem
    While growing, Zig does not yet have as rich an ecosystem of third-party libraries and frameworks as more established languages.
  • Documentation
    Though improving, the documentation is not as comprehensive as more mature languages, which can slow down the learning and development process.

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.

Analysis of Zig

Overall verdict

  • Zig is a highly promising language for those interested in system-level programming with a modern toolset. It offers a unique combination of performance and safety features, making it a strong competitor to more established languages in this domain such as C and C++.

Why this product is good

  • Zig is gaining attention due to its focus on simplicity, performance, and robustness. It provides manual control over memory management, which is appealing for system programming. Its tooling, such as a built-in package manager and the compiler's ability to cross-compile, is also praised. Additionally, the language has a strong emphasis on safety features without sacrificing low-level access.

Recommended for

  • System programmers looking for a modern alternative to C/C++
  • Developers interested in low-level programming with safety features
  • Programmers needing robust cross-compilation support
  • Someone who values explicitness and manual control over memory

Analysis of Haskell

Overall verdict

  • Haskell is good for certain types of projects and developers, especially those interested in functional programming and academic exploration. It may not be the best choice for every use case, particularly where performance-critical applications or system-level programming is required, due to its steep learning curve and relatively smaller community compared to more mainstream languages.

Why this product is good

  • Haskell is a purely functional programming language known for its high level of abstraction, robust type system, and lazy evaluation. These features make Haskell an excellent choice for academic research, complex algorithm design, and scenarios where concise and maintainable code is paramount. It encourages a different way of thinking about programming problems, which can lead to more elegant and robust solutions.

Recommended for

  • Developers interested in functional programming paradigms
  • Projects focused on academic research or algorithm development
  • Software requiring high-level abstractions and strong type safety
  • Enthusiasts wishing to learn a different approach to thinking about software design

Zig videos

+ Add

UNHYPE: CRAZY COLLAB Braindead x REEBOK ZIG Kinetica II REVIEW

More videos:

  • Review - Reebok ZIG Kinetica REVIEW [Conor McGregor Shoes] - Durable Everyday Training Sneakers
  • Review - Zig Dynamica - Full Review

Haskell videos

+ Add

Functional Programming & Haskell - Computerphile

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Zig and Haskell)

Zig

Haskell

Programming Language
62 62%
Programming Language
38% 38
OOP
67 67%
OOP
33% 33
Generic Programming Language
66 66%
Generic Programming Language
34% 34
JavaScript Runtime
100 100%
JavaScript Runtime
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Zig should be more popular than Haskell. It has been mentiond 157 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.

Zig mentions (157)

  • Show HN: Dk – A script runner and cross-compiler, written in OCaml
    I usually structure teaching the same way done in https://www.writethedocs.org/videos/eu/2017/the-four-kinds-of-documentation-and-why-you-need-to-understand-what-they-are-daniele-procida/. So "the Quick Walkthrough Guide will explain what dk scripts are and give you small examples to run" is simply a learning-oriented tutorial which is mostly about giving students confidence and visual feedback. And simultaneously... - Source: Hacker News / 1 day ago
  • What is Bun? The Node.js Alternative Explained
    Bun is written from scratch in Zig, a low-level language focused on performance and safety. Instead of using V8 (the engine behind Node and Deno), Bun runs on JavaScriptCore, the engine used in Safari. This choice helps it stay fast and efficient, both in terms of memory and startup time. - Source: dev.to / 25 days ago
  • RawWeb Updates: SimHash and Meilisearch
    For local testing, just run cargo build --release. But cross-platform compilation is much more complicated. Fortunately, the Zig toolchain greatly simplifies C cross-compilation, eliminating the need for musl libc! - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • F8 – an 8 bit architecture designed for C and memory efficiency [video]
    Https://ziglang.org/ is a solid future C-replacement, IMHO. There's pretty much no downsides and all upsides from a C hacker's perspective. It just hasn't reached 1.0 yet! - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Rust Kernel Policy
    But the situation for Rust-C++ interop is also worse than for Rust-C interop. Why else would Google spend maybe $1 million on improving it in 2024? https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/05/google_rust_donation/ Many years after Rust got support in Mozilla for usage with Firefox written in C++. >My sibling is also correct, language decisions were made in order to keep FFI zero overhead. Yet overhead is only one piece... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
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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: about 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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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Zig and Haskell, you can also consider the following products

Nim (programming language) - The Nim programming language is a concise, fast programming language that compiles to C, C++ and JavaScript.

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

V (programming language) - Simple, fast, safe, compiled language for developing maintainable software.

Rust - A safe, concurrent, practical language

D (Programming Language) - D is a language with C-like syntax and static typing.

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

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