Erlang vs Haskell

Difference Between Erlang vs Haskell

In this article, we will see an outline of Erlang vs Haskell. In this, Haskell is a programming language for Computers. It is a purely statically typed functional language that comes with the essence of modularity and multi-purpose use. The language is named after Haskell Brooks Curry, whose deeds in mathematics are the result of today’s state of functional languages. Haskell being a Functional Programming Language, has been particularly fabricated to handle list processing and symbolic computation. Functional programming is similar to functions in mathematics; hence it can be added as well as multiplied, etc. Being a functional language, Haskell tells the computer “what it is” rather than asking “what to do” and “how to do” as per other conventional languages. Haskell has statically typed language, which helps the developer not mention types for all the variables declared. It is modular also, which makes it easy to use and cost-effective.

Similar to Haskell, Erlang is also a functional programming language with also having a runtime environment. This Programming Language has integral support for robustness, concurrency, and distribution. Correlating with the other functional language also targets evaluating expressions rather than executing commands, where expressions utilize the functions to conclude basic values. Even though Erlang is a functional language, it shares some of its likes with Java as it supports the concept of multithreading and has a virtual machine. Java language is focused on Web development, whereas Erlang has its expertise in robust servers and embedded systems. Erlang is an open-source language, and it is highly used by programmers due to its capability to make robust programs and work on distributed computers within a network.

Head to Head Comparison between Erlang vs Haskell (Infographics)

Below is the top 9 Comparison between Erlang vs Haskell:

Key Differences Between Erlang vs Haskell

Let us discuss some of the major key differences between Erlang vs Haskell:

Both Erlang and Haskell are the most welcome choices in the market in terms of functional programming languages. Let’s explore some of the vital differences between Erlang and Haskell:

1. Erlang is dynamically typed, which means the type of the variable is not known until runtime. Whereas on the other hand, Haskell is statically typed, which means the type of all the variables is known at the compile time.
2. Erlang is a practical language and is preferred to use on a production system. On the other side, Haskell is an abstract language with an association toward academics and mathematics.
3. Erlang is more suited for the distributed environment and developing distributed systems because of features like Robustness, Concurrency, etc. On the other side, Haskell is used for applications with a mathematical and scientific approach.
4. Erlang is a dynamically typed functional language based on the bytecode concept. On the other side, Haskell is a purely functional programming language.
5. Erlang is mostly used in the telecom industry, e-commerce, banking industry, etc., because of its dedicated support for designing a distributed system. On the other side, Haskell is a traditional programming language, and it is used in the defense and aerospace industry, finance, etc.
6. The syntax of Erlang is not easy to learn. On the other side, Haskell has a more brief syntax which is better suited for traditional programming.
7. Erlang is satisfactory for the concurrency-based system. On the other side, Haskell does not have intensity when it comes to concurrency.
8. Erlang, with its practical approach, is popular for developing a production system. On the other side, although pure and dynamically typed, Haskell is not so good for developing a production system.
9. Erlang has its brilliant concurrency support and can run efficiently on a distributed system with multiple nodes. On the other side, Haskell is a purely functional programming language that is designed to run on a single node only.
10. Erlang is common for designing a distributed system, not at the same level of articulacy as Haskell. On the other side, Haskell can abstract and formalize the semantics decisively with recursive definitions and lambdas.

Comparison Table of Erlang vs Haskell

The table below summarizes the comparisons between Erlang vs Haskell:

Key factors	Erlang	Haskell
Typed functional language	It is a Dynamically typed programming language. It means the variable will get its type at the runtime.	It is a statically typed programming language. This means that the variable form is known at the time of compilation.
Syntax	Typical syntax is not easy to learn.	The brief syntax is easy to learn.
Ease of Learning	Easy to learn as compared to Haskell.	A difficult learning curve, i.e. steep.
Use case	Practical Based or real-time solutions.	Mathematically oriented problems.
Designing Distributed system	Because of its amazing characteristics like fault tolerance, concurrency, etc., it is preferred for designing distributed systems.	Not preferred for designing distributed systems.
Approach	Purely functional.	Traditional Approach.
Features	Erlang features concurrency, fault-tolerance, strong dynamic typing, pattern matching, eager evaluation, suitable for managing distributed systems as well as working on real-time applications.	Haskell features consist of lambda expressions, list comprehension, lazy evaluation, type classes, pattern matching, and typed polymorphism.
Communication between threads	Erlang only supports one communication model, i.e. the message-passing model.	In Haskell, communication between threads can be possible in many ways, such as Mvar, message passing, etc.
Performance	The Beam VM of Erlang is very good at stability.	The GHC compiler in Haskell offers less performance than the Erlang virtual machine due to its diabolical behaviour of performing work as well as compiler implementation.

Conclusion

Erlang and Haskell both of them, have their pros and cons. Haskell is purely functional, traditional, statically typed, mathematically oriented and has a brief syntax. Also, the learning curve for Haskell is steep. It has characteristics like recursive definitions and uses lambda calculus, which in turn helps formalize abstract semantics for use. Moreover, Erlang is preferred over Haskell for designing a production system due to its certain characteristics such as fault tolerance, concurrency, etc. It is also best suited for distributed systems because of its characteristics.

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