On Sun, 21 Sep 2008, Andrew Coppin wrote: > Actually, none of these things were mentioned. The things people have > *actually* complained to me about are: > - Haskell expressions are difficult to parse.
This is partly an "it's not braces, semicolons and function(application)" complaint, though not entirely. > - Several standard library elements have unhelpful names such as "elem", "Eq" > and "fst". (My favourite has to be "Ix". I mean, WTH?) > - Several standard library functions have names which clash badly with the > usual meanings of those names - e.g., "break", "return", "id". For this one, I'm inclined to say "welcome to a new paradigm". Though having to tell my dad briefly that do isn't a loop construct was odd for a moment. > - Variable names such as "x" and "f" aren't fabulously helpful to lost > programmers trying to find their way. > So don't use them? Though I think f in particular has its place in higher order functions. > The people I > spoke to also seemed pretty confused about the usage of (.) and ($), even > after I explained it a few times. Several people also voiced being puzzled > about Haskell's layout rules. > Pointless style is definitely newbie-unfriendly. I can understand being puzzled by layout: ultimately I had to go read the description in the Report to be happy. > I'm not sure what we *do* with all this data, but I found it interesting so I > thought I'd share. ;-) I've spent the last few years trying to convert a few > people to The Haskell Way(tm), but so far I haven't succeeded in the > slightest. I just get yelled at for pointing white noise. Heh. Oh well! > Have you tried showing people code that's been syntax highlighted? It's likely to help, especially with things like "does function application bind tighter?" where the highlighting is something of a cue. So is marking out = as important! Btw, (> x) reads much more easily as a predicate to most people than (x <=). -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire. Most of the time you just get burnt worse though. _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
