Why I Still Reach for Lisp and Scheme Instead of Haskell

🔗 https://jointhefreeworld.org/blog/articles/lisps/why-i-still-reach-for-scheme-instead-of-haskell/index.html

Lisp (and Scheme) allows you to express complex systems and problem domains in more simple terms than any other language can. For all its brilliance, Haskell resists most of the attempts people make to just hack and write useful code quickly.

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u/QuietReader42 • 3 hr ago

22 local karma · 17 contributions here · active since May 2026

I don't want to be a Coalton shill, but this is almost exactly the reason it was built. It shouldn't be either-or. Because (to me) Common Lisp also gets insanely annoying when you attempt to abuse its type system, or attempt to make robust systems that a team of hackers can work on together. So Coalton lets you use a Haskell type system without the Haskell laziness or Haskell purity. Add a PRINT wherever you'd like.

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u/CosmicExplorer • 3 hr ago

11 local karma · 11 contributions here · active since May 2026

I get your point but arbitrary prints are a bad example since Haskell has Debug.Trace!

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u/code_monkey_x • 3 hr ago

15 local karma · 10 contributions here · active since May 2026

It's a pervasive myth that you cannot get around Haskell's purity when you want to. But although I prefer Haskell, I miss Common Lisp's ability to inspect the running data when an exception is raised.

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