[Haskell-beginners] Getting into a Haskell project?

[Brent Yorgey]

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 11:58:46AM +1000, Duncan Mortimer wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm very new to both Haskell, and open source development (well...
> really, development of any kind...).  However, I'm really interested
> in getting good at both.
> 
> I was wondering whether anyone has any suggestions about good open
> source Haskell projects I could cut my teeth on, and any advice in
> general in getting into this stuff more deeply?
> 

Hi Duncan,

Here's my advice.  These should generally be done in parallel, not
necessarily in order:

  1. Work your way through a tutorial (or several) such as Learn You a
     Haskell [1] or Real World Haskell [2].

  2. Hang out in the #haskell IRC channel on freenode.net, hang out on
     this list.  Ask questions.  Read discussions other people are
     having, even sometimes about things you don't yet understand.

  3. Hack on your own little projects -- even if they're silly and
     probably won't actually turn into anything useful -- just to get
     some experience.

  4. For ideas of open-source Haskell projects you can help with, you
     can check out the Haskell Community and Activities Report (HCAR)
     [3], or ask around, like you've done here, but --

  5. Be patient.  I remember when I was first learning Haskell, I too
     sent a message to the mailing list asking if there were projects
     I could help with -- and I didn't get much of a response.  Not
     because there weren't things I could help with, but just because
     that's not usually the way things happen.  But I've now worked on
     lots of projects, some other people's and some of my own.  It
     just takes time to feel things out, find things you're interested
     in, figure out the culture, and so on.

-Brent