Co-Creator of Haskell: Functional Programming, Thinking in Types, Useless Languages | Simon Jones

Simon Peyton Jones is the co-creator of Haskell (pure functional programming language) and I interviewed him about functional programming, why it matters, and his thoughts on other programming languages.

• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: read.compose.llc

Podcast links:

• YouTube: youtu.be/xcB_LF3cdqw
• Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod…
• Transcript: developing.dev/p/co-creator-of-haskell-functio…

Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work:

• WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at workos.com

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:39) What functional programming is
(09:18) Downsides of functional programming
(10:53) Specialized hardware for functional programming
(21:47) Haskell is useless
(25:59) Rust vs C
(28:26) Haskell vs OCaml
(35:26) Side effects in Haskell
(44:26) Type systems
(57:30) How the Haskell compiler works
(01:04:35) Why Haskell is talked about more than used
(01:09:07) Avoiding success at all costs
(01:11:12) LLMs and programming languages
(01:13:57) New programming language design
(01:15:59) Should students continue to learn programming
(01:22:33) Why Excel is his 2nd favorite programming language
(01:25:04) Advice for his younger self

Where to find Simon:

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonpj
• Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Peyton_Jones
• Personal Website: simon.peytonjones.org

Where to find Ryan:

• Newsletter: developing.dev
• X/Twitter: x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman
• Threads: threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Referenced in this episode:

• Haskell is useless: youtube.com/watch?v=iSmkqocn0oQ
• John Backus Turing Award lecture: worrydream.com/refs/Backus_1978_-_Can_Programm…
• Why functional programming matters: cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/whyfp90…
• Excel is his 2nd favorite programming language: youtube.com/watch?v=_M4P5M85KO8