Haskell

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What Does Haskell Mean?

Haskell is an open-source functional computer programming language that was first conceived in 1990. Haskell is named after Haskell Curry, a mathematician and logician famous for creating combinatory logic, the primary concept behind functional programming language. Haskell is also considered to be a purely functional programming language because all computation is performed on the basis of the evaluation of expressions.

Techopedia Explains Haskell

Haskell incorporates all of its functions and structure from a mathematical system, more specifically lambda calculus. The language operates on immutable data and expressions, where the primary structure of the program is preserved while still maintaining the amended structure. Some of the key features of Haskell programming language are the implementation of:

  • Lazy Evaluation/Lazy: The evaluation of expressions is held back until required by other computations/expressions.
  • Polymorphism: The type of a value can be or can take different type based on how it is used within the functional context.
  • Statically Typed: All errors in a program can be checked before execution or run time.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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