From what I've read on the net, it seemed to me that Lisp
is the parent of Haskell, I am not quite sure though!

I may seek to learn either of these languages just for
enlightening the brain, not as a homework or anything.

Which one out of the following
(Haskell OR Lisp)
AND
(Assembly)

should be preferred for what
reasons?

Why did you pick these three? There are countless programming languages to learn for fun... Anyways, comparing LISP an Assembly is like comparing apples and swimming: there is nothing to compare.

1 members found this post helpful.

I am not intending to learn these for "fun".
I said "brain enlightenment" - read rigourous brain exercise.

than take C++

People who use LISP are supposed to believe that it increases productively exponentially. Certainly it should fit what you have in mind.

You could also try PROLOG if you are interested in AI.

OK

1 members found this post helpful.

The short-answer to your question is: "Yes!"

Learn programming languages – all of the above, and Prolog, and more. Spend some serious time looking at each of these, then move on to another. Look at haXe. The list never ends.

On the one hand, all of these tools are built to do the same thing: to cause a digital computer to do something useful, and to cause you to pull-out all of your hair in the process. Yet, they are all different. Different in their approach to the problem, different both in their strengths and in their weaknesses. Most of them were the product of someone else's conclusion that all of the tools that were at that time "out there" were rubbish, and that the world of computing therefore obviously needed another one which would fix all of those problems and finally usher in Nirvana. So, you will learn a lot from this study – and, at least for me, have fun doing it. You will view the same tasks from many different points of view.

I once was presented with a Geocaching-like puzzle which involved multiple stages. One was a "sudoku puzzle from Hell," and another was a logic problem ("The lady wearing the red dress is not holding a pineapple.") with 21 clues. I used GNU Prolog ("gprolog") to solve both of these, and, just out of curiosity, to determine that one of the 21 clues could be omitted. I learned a lot by doing this, and later on I was able to use the same ideas in the context of paying $work, to come up with a very-elegant solution to a difficult business problem. Luck favors the well-prepared.

1 members found this post helpful.

Programming language for brain enlightenment? Wow!
I've been reading somewhere that people who have written assembly code for MIPS architecture got so enlightened that they found writing assembly for other architectures, especially x86 and IA a brainf*ck.(?) You should try that.

Jokes apart, the only cross reference of programming language and enlightenment I found was reading Eric S. Raymond's commentary regrading LISP somewhere.

Regards.

This is a good time to get into assembler because a Coursera course on it started a week and a half ago. It's still early enough to start and not be permanently behind:

https://www.coursera.org/course/hwswinterface

I'm taking it.

1 members found this post helpful.

C/C++ will enlighten your brain and be much more useful than any of these.

(Well, C++ is a union of two (or more) very different concepts, so I would say it's easier to learn both C and Java first, and C++ only after those.)

Thanks to all for their time.

C/C++ haven't made me "pull my hair out" yet.

I'll disagree, politely, with the notion that "C/C++ is the One Ring To Rule Them All.™" It isn't.

Language implementations are usually done in either C or C++, but the languages differ from one another in at least three useful ways:

• The tools and facilities that they provide to the programmer, such that the programmer can happily forget about them.
• The "metaphors." The ways that the languges encourage the programmer to think about the problem. For instance, "functional programming."
• In the case of languages such as Prolog, the outright ability to describe a problem in an abstract way so that a pre-supplied engine that is part of the language will solve it for you.

You ultimately get to the same destination: syntax errors uhh head-banging frustration uhh "getting to watch the computer solve your problem and do your bidding." But they all do it differently. Since you're in the business of creating computer software, it is useful to explore the vast toolbox. You don't have to stuff your cranium full of any of them; not yet. But it will help you to, as Apple once said, "Think Different.™"

1 members found this post helpful.

I was also thinking about learning Haskell or Lisp recently (just for "fun"). I like C but I don't particularly like languages like Java (slow execution, simplified, garbage collection instead of memory management, runs in a JVM which is wasteful and an unreasonable dependency). Haskell and Lisp have some of those features, so I decided to learn Fortran77 instead.

This is a good starting point: http://web.stanford.edu/class/me200c/tutorial_77

1 members found this post helpful.

I'm with Linus, C++ will turn your brain into mud.

Try all 3 I would say. lisp is fantastic for brain exercise. Haskell is similar.
I never assembled but I daresay it won't be time wasted.

1 members found this post helpful.

I'm not sure what "enlightening the brain" means but for sheer challenge, assembler has no equal. FORTH with its "stackrobatics" is also a great brain developer.

Higher level languages will mask a lot of the lower level challenging details but introduce new challenges of their own.

1 members found this post helpful.