Hi,

Thanks a lot for presenting an objective comparison among the four
functional languages.  In your personal opinion, which of the four
languages is the easiest to be integrated with C?  At least SWIG has only
interfaces for MzScheme and Guile.  Does it imply that probably Scheme is
the easiest to integrate with C, if not much easier than Haskell?

Regards,

Bill
==========================================================================
Nat Pryce <nat.pryce / b13media.com> wrote:
> Not all functional languages are the same.  For example:

> Haskell and ML have static typing with powerful generics and type
> inference.  Scheme and LISP have dynamic, but not polymorphic, typing.

> Haskell is lazy (implements normal order evaluation of function
> arguments).  ML, Scheme and LISP are strict (implement first order
> evaluation).

> Haskell is pure functional.  ML, Scheme and LISP functions can have side
> effects.

> Haskell has curried functions, ML, Scheme and LISP do not.

> Etc.

> So, Haskell is further away from more everyday languages than Scheme and
> LISP, while ML is somewhere between the two.  For example, Java has a
> mix of dynamic and static type systems, has first order evaluation of
> function arguments, allows functions with side effects, and does not
> support curried functions.  So, Java is closer to Scheme than Haskell. 
> If you're used to Java, I think Haskell is much more interesting to
> learn.

> Cheers,
> 	Nat.

> -- 
> Dr. Nathaniel Pryce, Technical Director, B13media Ltd.
> Studio 3a, 22-24 Highbury Grove, London N5 2EA, UK
> http://www.b13media.com