[Linux-aus] FOSS-as-a-service

[Adam Nielsen]

> > Sadly it is written in haskell which makes hacking on it quite hard
> > unless you are already into haskell.  
> 
> Is it hard to hack because Haskell is a hard language to work in or
> because you're unfamiliar with it?

Haskell is difficult to pick up if you've never been exposed to
functional programming languages before.  It's a completely different
mindset to imperative languages like C, Python, Java, etc. and most
common programming problems are solved in completely different ways.
For instance most languages like Haskell don't allow for/while loops,
instead repeating certain sections of code by making use of recursive
function calls.  And for a seasoned imperative programmer, it seems
like all lines of a Haskell program execute at the same time which is
mind bending.

If you're interested in programming then learning Haskell or a similar
functional language is quite an eye-opening experience.  But for most
people the learning curve is very steep and it may not be worth the
effort depending on what you hope to contribute in the case of an
existing project.

Cheers,
Adam.