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λHaskell vs OCaml🐫

Haskell is purely functional with lazy evaluation, while OCaml is pragmatically functional with eager evaluation. Purity versus practicality.

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λHaskell
  • Purely functional with strong correctness guarantees
  • Powerful type system and lazy evaluation
  • Excellent for reasoning about complex code
  • Vibrant academic and research community
🐫OCaml
  • Fast compilation and predictable performance
  • Pragmatic mix of functional and imperative styles
  • Powers production tools at major companies
  • Eager evaluation is easier to reason about for some

Verdict

Pick Haskell for purity, strong guarantees and exploring functional ideas. Pick OCaml for pragmatic, fast functional code with predictable performance.

Frequently asked

Which is harder to learn?+

Haskell's purity and laziness add conceptual hurdles OCaml does not require.

Which is faster?+

OCaml's eager evaluation often gives more predictable, fast performance.

Which is used in industry?+

Both appear in industry; OCaml notably powers some major financial and tooling systems.

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