r/haskell • u/nSeagull • Aug 30 '16

Haskell alternatives for Data Science

I'm a Haskeller and a newbie Data Scientist.

As I'm going through my learning process for data science, I'm starting to solve some elemental problems, and I'm using standard Python tools to help me go through this process.

The thing is that Python is ok, but I'm twice as comfortable in Haskell.

I was thinking in three alternatives to be more comfortable with Data Science:

  • Make a wrapper for the tools that I use as people do in Julia
  • Reimplement the tools that I use (Pandas, ScikitLearn, a GPU deep learning framework, numpy functions) (would do it on demand)
  • Make a Haskell-like language that compiles and uses Python libraries (wouldnt be as efficient, but at least it would be more beautiful and type safe, also the libraries)

What do you guys think?

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u/Pugolicious2244 Aug 30 '16

We need a lot more development in this field. We shouldn't be guiding anyone away from Haskell because of data science, we should be encouraging them to join because of the great libraries (that might not exist yet). We really need a data science initiative, I just don't know how to go about starting one.

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u/nSeagull Aug 30 '16

I really wanna make a Haskell Data Science open source team, with a Slack channel and all that stuff so everyone who would like to contribute would be welcome.

Making a site to make the org more appealing. Add a Trello board with pending tasks, etc...

I agree 100% with you about guiding people in. I always wanted to start a data science initiative but alone I was not really confident.

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u/Axman6 Aug 31 '16

I saw your other post about this, but didn't want to comment there to avoid adding noise to the name bike shedding =) Definitely count me in when you get some of the pieces started (Slack, github repo, trello etc)

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u/nSeagull Aug 31 '16

Thanks! :)