DEV Community

Discussion on: Do you consider learning Elm?

View post
Collapse
 
drbearhands profile image
DrBearhands •

I consider Elm to be one of the most interesting languages out there.
The way it leverages purity to ensure no runtime exceptions (also eliminating most bugs) and no risk 3rd party libraries greatly influenced my way of thinking about functional programming; from a bit of a gimmick to something with potentially serious business value.

In practice, it's competing with Haskell for my favourite language. Haskell has better polymorphism but Elm is way cleaner and even safer.

Collapse
 
macsikora profile image
Pragmatic Maciej • • Edited

Hi, thanks for your reply. Can you elaborate about how Elm is safer from Haskell?

Collapse
 
drbearhands profile image
DrBearhands • • Edited
  • Elm's functions are nearly total (you still get the halting problem). Haskell's are not.
  • Elm doesn't allow you or 3rd parties to sneak in side-effects somewhere.
  • Elm doesn't allow unsafe casting.
  • TEA is more limited than IO monads.