If you don't know the language and tools it definitely takes quite some time to setup Java, Maven, etc. All the issues with class paths, manifests, and so on, that are just completely alien and opaque coming from any other language make the experience very frustrating.
This. I think a lot of people who use mainstream languages forget what it's like starting from scratch in those languages. Getting a projects setup in Java, C++, C, Rust, etc are all quite difficult.
Getting a web application started in Ruby is easy because it does so much for you out of the box.
There are frameworks that make similar choices for you in Haskell as well: IHP, Yesod, etc.
I think taking two weeks to "set up" a Haskell project is a bit long but I read it as the author taking two weeks to learn enough Haskell to make two rather advanced libraries work together... which means they had to make all the little micro decisions that frameworks make for you, etc. With more experience that could've been done in less time.
If they had started with IHP I think it would've been your usual day or two.
Thanks for mentioning IHP. I've only read its landing page, but if what is has to say about itself is all true and from what is apparent looking at code samples, it definitely deserves to be on folks' radar!
It's enough to make Haskell really seem like a reasonable choice to "jump in with" without fear of never reaching some mundane goal.
Starting a very good starter project in Java/Kotlin is literally next->next->next while selecting what you want (frameworks, maven/gradle, jvm version, etc) in IntelliJ. And if you do not use IntelliJ you can use https://start.spring.io/ or other starter projects.
