Why can Haskell handle very large numbers easily?

Question

Hugs> 94535^445
13763208823213770506960538876615156211048901640052821530697264247739998018468419032448277029434879827074549660094560167350418780006041435009085328         


        

Answer 1

The short and basic answer is that they implement default integers differents. In Java, a standard int is 32 bits. Signed, that gives you a range of −2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647.

That said, Java has bignum classes too. If you use those, you'll also gain the ability to use arbitrarily large numbers.