Experience report: Haskell as a reagent: results and observations on the use of Haskell in a python project

Abstract

In system administration, the languages of choice for solving automation tasks are scripting languages, owing to their flexibility, extensive library support and quick development cycle. Functional programming is more likely to be found in software development teams and the academic world. This separation means that system administrators cannot use the most effective tool for a given problem; in an ideal world, we should be able to mix and match different languages, based on the problem at hand. This experience report details our initial introduction and use of Haskell in a mature, medium size project implemented in Python. We also analyse the interaction between the two languages, and show how Haskell has excelled at solving a particular type of real-world problems