[tonylxc]

Sounds good but still not convincing. For example, R can do the same thing, too, or even better. And it can be integrated with other programming languages. I would never buy it either until somebody really shows it's worth the money.

[interpol_p]

It's only $25.

I've been interested in playing with Haskell for a while but I've been put off by the need to setup existing tools. Having an all-in-one package with neat presentation, packaged libraries, and immediate feedback sounds like a great deal for $25.

[jane_is_here]

The problem is having to use a Mac. I guess that I could spin up my Yosemite virtual machine...

[interpol_p]

I think having to run a VM you don't often use is kind of defeating the purpose of the app.

If you're willing to run a VM for a single app you are probably the type of person who is willing to spend the time to set up a Haskell tool chain and libraries for free.

Although I am most definitely not that type of person, all I care about is playing with the language. Anything detrimental to that is just noise and not worth the time. So I consider the $25 quite a cheap price to not have to think about the extraneous actions required to get a Haskell environment up and running.

[jane_is_here]

I already have the Haskell toolchain and libraries. It merely required the command "apt-get install haskell-platform". However, the Haskell Playgrounds feature that Chakravarty offers sounds interesting enough to spin up a Mac VM.

[makomk]

It doesn't take many "only $25"s before you've spend $100.

[interpol_p]

$100 is also quite cheap for a well developed piece of software that you enjoy using.

[mbrock]

Depending on how many other dollars you have to spend on things that you might enjoy eating.

[nrinaudo]

I think the playground is probably its most unique feature. Other languages have it, but they're either too heavy to be practical (scala worksheets), embedded in a browser (python), or just not languages I care to work with (Swift). I love the idea of being able to throw some quick code together in a window, see immediate results and tweak things until I get what I want.

Haskell is particularly well suited to this king of workflow, everything being immutable and evaluating to a value. You can think of it as the best programmable calculator in the world.

[Tehnix]

This has little to do with Haskell as a language, and more to do with this specific tool. Your argument is a little like saying about paying for an editor "For example, VIM can do the same thing, too, or even better...".

What you get is a nice looking environment with a built-in playground alá Swift's, that can visualise data, types and even games.

[gohrt]

R cannot compile Haskell code.