On Fri, 2008-10-10 at 22:24 +0100, Iain Barnett wrote: > On 10 Oct 2008, at 9:00 pm, Tommy M. McGuire wrote: > > > Iain Barnett wrote: > >> On 9 Oct 2008, at 9:33 pm, Andrew Coppin wrote: > >>> I think it's just the teaching of the language that needs work, > >>> not so much the language itself. > >> As a newer user myself, I'd agree with this statement. I'd like to > >> see far more mundane tasks solved in tutorials. > > > > I would agree as well. My own flailings led to Software Tools in > > Haskell[1], which taught me more about how to actually do things[2] > > than the textbooks that I have read. > > That looks like a really useful resource, thanks. I've just read the > introduction and that is the same experience I've been having, > (ending up with bits of programs and nothing really practical). I'm > currently trying to write some simple games in Haskell, and learning > a lot along the way. > > > > >> Haskell is can obviously do some really interesting things, but > >> constantly having wikipedia open so I can look up whatever > >> mathematical doodah has just been mentioned can get draining. Even > >> Real World Haskell suffers a bit from this. > > > > The mathematical doodahs are *very* useful, much more so than any > > other language I have used, but it helps to have some kind of > > foundation to understand how and why. I am frequently reminded of > > a "How to Draw" page from the Tick[3] comic, which went something > > like: > > > > Yep. They're certainly useful, it's just that explanation and > knowledge aren't always the fastest route to understanding. Sometimes > it's better just to get on with things and just do it - you don't > learn how to drive by getting lessons on the combustion engine from a > physicist :) > > > On 10 Oct 2008, at 9:50 pm, Don Stewart wrote: > > Haskell makes > > constructing true parsers just as easy, > > > > You're not speaking for me there! :) I really like regex. It's a > domain specific functional language, so why rewrite the wheel?
It's a domain-specific *declarative* language. Turning it into a true functional language makes it something entirely different. jcc _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
