Why can Haskell handle very large numbers easily?

Question

Hugs> 94535^445
13763208823213770506960538876615156211048901640052821530697264247739998018468419032448277029434879827074549660094560167350418780006041435009085328         


        

Answer 1

You can use BigInteger to do the same thing. Haskell is a functional language which is more terse than Java.

One reason we have so many languages is that different languages are better at different tasks as they were designed with different assumptions. Most functional languages are simpler with mathematical functions but tend to struggle with other use cases e.g. haskell is unlikely to be good choice for writing a GUI.

Answer 2

Java has the BigInteger class.

It could have built this facility into the language, but (like many languages) it tends to make the primitive features map closely onto things that are supported by the CPU.

Haskell on the other hand emphasizes expressiveness in the style of mathematical notation, where "performance" considerations are largely irrelevant.