Haskell

So, during my ongoing six days off of work, I got bored and naturally, as life would have it, I needed some intellectual stimulation.
I was looking for some interesting people to talk to, and during a search I conducted, the Internet's rabbit hole mentioned a network called IRC.

Not being familiar with IRC, having never accessed it. I decided to jump in and see what it was all about. Being completely new, It took a while to figure out the layout and general functions of the program. I asked a LOT of questions and got a LOT of great answers from some bright people.

Eventually, the first channel I found myself accessing was #Haskell. This channel is located on the Freenode network of IRC.
I G00gled/searched something along the lines of "Best IRC channels that have intelligence" ( I know, some of the stuff people type into G00gle, right I came across a website on the second result listed in which a user there stated he enjoyed his time on #Haskell, the people were friendly, etc.

Needless to say, I had no idea what Haskell was, nor was I concerned at the time. All I wanted was to find a group of friendly and smart, and hopefully like-minded people to talk to.

I arrived at #Haskell and met everyone there. Immediately, the people residing on the channel were some of the nicest people I have ever met. Although, I didn't understand most of talk and terms being discussed, I observed with a smile. For once in a really long time, the world around me seemed new and fresh. Like, somewhere I haven't visited yet. Which Is a really rare ideation.

Some time into my observations as an active and interested bystander and spectator, an extremely bright and extraordinary user started talking to me. I learned so much. Also, people on the network answered ALL of my questions politely. I mean this person is pretty epic. There are also some other extremely epic people on the network I've enjoyed keeping me company, and unexpectedly, and most importantly, have greatly inspired my thoughts and perspective.

I met a few other users and got to know them a little. It seems the network is composed of mostly legitimate computer programmers focusing on Haskell in their legitimate business ventures. I talked to one of the users about the "epic" person that was talking to me. I asked if they were "one of the main Haskell people." They said "Yes. He's a smartie!" After talking to one of the users about him and trying to find the courage and a witty way to get his attention to talk to him further privately, the user asked me if I had a "knowledge crush" on him. I laughed but didn't answer. Later on I realized I really did. I mean how do you not? This epic person was really epic. I wanted to learn all I could from them. It was like a drug. After about two ignored messages from this epic person I was giving up hope. However, by the third message I sent several hours succeeding the former two, the epic person finally responded! I found out this epic person is like a mathematics genius. That explained a lot! They were also intellectually charming. So, it was true. I did indeed have a knowledge crush, but just didn't see it like that until someone pointed it out, but it was of the best kind.


It's been about 4 days that I have visited the channel as a regular. It's the best group of people I have ever met. Ever. I feel like I am at home. Somehow.

So, without any original intention of learning a new computer language, or even entering a channel of computer programmers to talk to, I found myself really enjoying #Haskell. So much in fact that, by proxy of enjoying the company of my new acquaintances, I started to pick up on the fundamentals of Haskell.

Haskell is really quite an elegant, adaptive and functional language. I'm really enjoying it!
Does ATS encompass any Haskell, I wondered? If not, maybe they should consider!

Haskell focuses on primarily on getting results. Programing in Haskell there is no room for errors, and you get exactly the results intended. It's a very clean language and removes a lot of unnecessary clutter that C++ has.
After only learning what Haskell was a few days ago, I've since read that It's not as fast as C++, but that the speed difference is so miniscule that It's really a non issue. I also read that in the slight lack of speed in comparison to C++, Haskell makes up for having less coding errors/bugs and crashes since It's a more clean and precise language. That also reduces the time spent maintaining your code and fixing it. Haskell also has quite a fast compiler that is always improving.

It is never too late to dive into new things in life. I never thought I would be learning a computer language or meeting some of the brightest, friendliest people on my six days off of work, perpetuated by a plague of boredom and incessant need for intellectual stimulation. Without "new" stimulation, the brain atrophies. I think this concept has been forgotten by some and It's imperative to seek out!
Thank you for letting me tell you about Haskell, my continuing adventure with it, and the bright minds that surround it!

~Acatalepsia

Oh IRC... Bringer of lols, destroyer of university courses. I was an avid IRC user (mirc or pirch) 20 odd years ago. Such a neat way to chat and feel engaged...
Except I ended engaged... Quit university and flew to the other side of the world, for a wonderful 6 months, followed by a horrid 2 years then and marvelous sloppy divorce.

You've been warned!

a reply to: Acatalepsia

IRC or Internet Relay Chat is used for a variety of purposes, providing channels (chatrooms) for gamers, clans, warez/ftplists/other (sometimes nefarious) types of actions. Be aware that there are some risks, never run a IRC client with elevated or admin privileges.

As far as Haskell goes, I can imagine it might be usefull for fast results on a cmd but it´s like C# did with C++ for example. Sure C# is easy to learn and has it´s benefits. It drew so much people into programming that´s nice. But C++ is still more powerfull.

You can have a car that takes you arround safely and reliable from point A-B. Or any other point, and it´s easy to drive and fast to learn.
Or you take a race fit car, without the electronic safty programs and get much faster from A-B. Problem here is you need to know what you do.

Maybe a bad analogy but I hope you get the gist.


a reply to: Qumulys
Yeah I remember the days too. I barely remember all commands though. Was OP in some channels but then who in those days was not. Not that IRC isn´t anymore but except for a few channels I do not even idle any more. It´s just on some special days when I know old buds will be there or smth. happened and I need intel on that.

IRC is still used by tens of thousands of people every day. Pick any channel on the freenode network and you'll have 500+ folk in the popular ones.

Freenode is a network most frequented by pioneers and advocates of free open source software, you'll find folk in channels like, #C #python #bash #ubuntu #linux #unix #networking #cisco #perl just about anything tech related. There's also #wikileaks on freenode with about 10-15 lurkers there 24/7... I suspect journalists?

Don't be afraid to delve deeper into the world of IRC... google some other networks... and if you like, /msg socketman 'hello there' on freenode -- I'm on freenode 24/7 365/year.

So yeah, hit me up... just type, "/msg socketman hi there!" (without the quotes)

Been sitting about on #haskall all morning getting long needed answers to some of my questions. Great channel

a reply to: kingofthesouth

I just asked in main haskell chat if you were in there.. boom ATS shout out!

a reply to: socketdude

Ha. I'm not in there at the moment. Nor do I go by the same user name as here

I also created a new channel, #AboveTS -- Feel free to idle there.

originally posted by: Acatalepsia
a reply to: socketdude

Ha. I'm not in there at the moment. Nor do I go by the same user name as here

Yeah - I've got many aliases too -- socketman is my government approved version of me.

Wow. 1 star one flag. Almost no replies and it get's moved from Science and Technology and thrown under the Interesting Website bus. Even though it has offtopic elements, It IS about a programming language.

Because that wasn't a waste of time or anything. Maybe If I knew that before my 4 hour time frame window I would have just deleted it and did something else with my time.
Maybe if I wrote a stiff breaking news story that I wrote two sentences about and then copy and pasted a link from google to a website with the story that anyone can just go THERE and read maybe the thread wouldn't be treated like garbage. Because that would be original.

Awesome. High five to ATS.

a reply to: Acatalepsia

I didn't star or flag because there were a number of inconsistencies with regards to your description of irc and
Freenode. These inconsistencies could have been ruled out with mild research, like Wikipedia.

Although I enjoyed the read anyway. It was entertaining.

a reply to: Acatalepsia

At least it was a nice read. Dont be mad because you do not get stars and flags. who cares? what do they buy you?
An then socketdude is dead on with what he said about the inconsistencies.

edit: btw you just killed your thread with that post.