Rust vs. Haskell: A Performance Comparison

Introduction

This article compares the performance of Rust and Haskell programming languages. Rust is designed to address the shortcomings of C-based languages, providing type safety, concurrency, and performance capabilities. It enforces memory safety without a garbage collector. Haskell, on the other hand, is a purely functional and statically typed language known for lazy evaluation and expressive syntax.

Rust Features

• Memory safety
• Concurrency
• Interoperability with C
• Zero-cost abstraction
• Minimal runtime

Ownership and Borrowing in Rust

Rust uses an ownership and borrowing system to manage memory-related bugs at compile time. Variables can access memory through immutable borrowing or mutable borrowing.

Haskell Features

• Lazy evaluation
• Type inference
• Expressive syntax

Concurrency in Rust

Rust offers multiple approaches to concurrency, including multiple threads, sharing states concurrently, and message passing.

Concurrency in Haskell

Haskell handles concurrency using packages such as Data.IORef, Data.StRef, Control.Monad.Trans.State, and Control.Concurrent.STM.TVar.

Type Safety

Both Rust and Haskell support fundamental data types and implement their type systems using type inference, static typing, and algebraic data types (ADT).

Use Cases

• Haskell: Research, academia
• Rust: Web development, system programming

Conclusion

Rust and Haskell have different approaches to performance and concurrency. Rust focuses on memory safety and low-level system programming, while Haskell emphasizes lazy evaluation and expressive syntax for research and academia.