Updated June 2, 2023
Difference Between Haskell vs Rust
Haskell is defined as a functional programming language that is general-purpose, powerful, and reliable language. Hence, it particularly suited for fast prototyping, proprietary business logic, and enhancing the current environment of the software with properly written code and data analysis. Haskell is mainly known for its fast performance in any developed app or software, as it has an excellent compiler. Programmers designed Rust, a language for system development that incorporates ideas from C++, to prioritize safe memory allocation, ensuring that memory is not released until the process completes. Rust also features a powerful compiler that enhances performance.
Head to Head Comparison between Haskell vs Rust (Infographics)
Below are the top 8 differences between Haskell vs Rust:
Key Differences between Haskell vs Rust
Some of the differences between Haskell vs Rust are given below:
1. Macros Use
In Haskell, programmers tend to use macros less frequently compared to Rust. Haskell’s preference for lazy evaluation over macros arises from its provision of a lazy evaluation feature. Therefore Haskell replaces macros with lazy evaluation and higher-order functions, yet there is an option where you can still use macros to speed up and generating code. In Rust, programmers use macros whenever there is a need for reusable code. They can write this code once as macros, declare them using Rust’s built-in macros, and then use them throughout the codebase.
2. High-Level or Low-Level Language
In Haskell, we often describe the high-level language as extremely high-level because of its lazy evaluation feature. The compiler provides built-in functions and decides when to execute different parts of the code. Rust programmers need to be cautious when dealing with memory allocation due to the low-level nature of the language, which can be perceived as a disadvantage, despite its advantages. Additionally, there is a possibility that some applications could run less efficiently compared to dynamic scripting languages.
3. Drawbacks in Both
As Haskell uses few easy-to-use libraries which are implemented using vocabulary which needs the programmers or beginners to understand the abstract math and hence it is considered very difficult to learn and understand this Haskell language when compared to any other, and also it provides symbols everywhere, some extensions to this language which may lead to very different code which is not understandable and even the package manager is unstable. Whereas Rust also has a few disadvantages as it is a low-level language, it always makes the programmers alert while allocating memory, and this language also requires some time to understand the language as even Haskell is difficult to learn.
Haskell vs Rust Comparison Table
Below given is the comparison table showing the comparison between Haskell vs Rust:
|
Haskell |
Rust |
| Haskell is a functional programming language with an excellent compiler for developing apps and software faster than any other development language. | Rust, a system programming language, possesses a robust compiler that enables faster performance by utilizing safe code, thus making it an efficient and secure language. |
| Haskell is both a statically and dynamically typed language where the compiler infers the types of any written variables, and the value assigned cannot be changed at runtime. | Rust’s static typing nature enables it to identify errors at compile-time, making debugging easier compared to dynamically typed languages. |
| Haskell does not use macros as it already has higher-order functions and lazy evaluations, yet it can be still used for speeding up and generating code but its use is minimal in Haskell as lazy evaluations substitute it. | Rust programming relies on macros to reuse code that appears multiple times throughout the program. Macros define this code once, making it easy to declare using Rust’s built-in macro, which enhances code efficiency. |
| In Haskell, it provides purely functional programming that does not mess up with programming paradigm like other languages, as we can avoid the old methods of writing functions, allowing you to write the new way. | Rust also provides functional programming though it is system programming but not as Haskell. In Rust, creating and declaring functional with some additional features from any structure applications is very easy. |
| Haskell is a high-level language the main reason for this is for its laziness as the compilers and runtime make the decision when the different part of code needs to be executed as it also provides more built-in functionalities. | Rust is low-level programming, which is a kind of drawback as the developers should be careful while allocating memories where few applications can run without exceeding the server’s capacity. |
| Haskell needs some additional frameworks compared to Rust for connecting to the web services as it requires more time to understand it technically and provides rapid prototyping for designing APIs. | Rust provides a huge lot of libraries and frameworks for designing APIs than Haskell it is more popular for this reason and it also popular when we consider features like size, speed-wise, and security-wise it is better than Haskell. |
| The tools that integrate with Haskell are Buddy, Yesdo, Rollbar, Google Code Prettify, MessagePack, miso, Tile38, FOSSA, etc. | Rust also integrates with a few tools such as Deno, Tendermint, Ripple, Leaf, Airbrake, Ethereum, Actix, Multichain, Nanobox, etc. |
| Companies that use Haskell are Broadcom, Juspay, Gini, Bellroy, Sfeir, SeatGeek, Takt, Realmac software, Commonwealth Bank, Target, etc. | Companies that use Rust Dropbox, Klarna, Postmates, QIWI, Arclx, Codustry, AresRPG, Diffbot, Tanium, Wirecard, LogDNA, Samsunir, Brilliant, etc. |
Conclusion
In this article, we conclude that Haskell and Rust are both language tools, so there is no much difference in these both. But when the programmer is writing code, Rust provides a safer way to write code than Haskell. And most of them prefer Rust as it provides many libraries and frameworks which are very useful in designing apps Haskell provides libraries that implement using vocabulary and make it difficult for the programmer to understand, but Haskell is good when using functional programming as it uses rapid prototyping. Therefore the programmers need to carefully choose the language according to the requirements and ease of development.
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