[Haskell-beginners] general observation about programming

[Jeffrey Brown]

If you want to know how to pronounce an infix, GHCI and Hackage can very
often solve the problem for you. For instance:

    > :i <$>
    (<$>) :: Functor f => (a -> b) -> f a -> f b
            -- Defined in ‘Data.Functor’
    infixl 4 <$>
    >

If you then lookup Data.Functor on Hackage, you'll find in the description
of <$> "An infix synonym for fmap." Even if there's no comment provided,
you can from there view source; often you'll find a one-word definition
like "(>>=) = bind".

On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 1:55 AM, Mike Pentney <mike.pentney at physics.org>
wrote:

> As a newbie, something I dislike about Haskell is the use of infix
> operators like <||> which are unpronouncable and therefore (if you don't
> happen to know the notation the symbol is based on) are more or less
> meaningless.
>
> And Haskellers often seem to prefer 1 and 2 character variable names,
> which again convey little or no information.
>
> And don't get me started on point-free code...!
>
> N.B. I am not trying to start a flame war, these are just comments from my
> experience of trying to get beyond text-book examples and start using
> Haskell libraries and trying to learn from open source code. In general I
> find idiomatic Haskell hard to understand, and for me this is a barrier to
> using Haskell for real projects. Maybe someday I'll have learnt enough to
> get past this problem, but as the language and libraries seem to evolve
> quickly, I have my doubts...
>
>
> On 25/02/16 19:19, Jeffrey Brown wrote:
>
>> Something I like about functional programming is how it interfaces with
>> natural language.
>> Haskell, somehow to a greater extent than other languages, encourages me
>> to divide functions
>> into one or two-liners. Each has a type signature that means something in
>> English. Further, each
>> gives you the opportunity to choose a good name for the function and its
>> arguments. After doing
>> those things, the function is much easier to write, and much easier to
>> read -- so much so that
>> often you don't have to read the function body at all, just the type
>> signature, function name
>> and argument names.
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 8:17 AM, Dudley Brooks <
>> dbrooks at runforyourlife.org
>> <mailto:dbrooks at runforyourlife.org>> wrote:
>>
>>     Ages and ages ago I saw this advice about programming:
>>
>>     Q:  "What's the best language for a programmer to know?"
>>
>>     A:  "English" (or whatever your native language is)
>>
>>     -- Dudley
>>
>>
>>     On 2/24/16 4:03 PM, Dennis Raddle wrote:
>>
>>     This is more about programming in general than Haskell, although
>>> Haskellers probably know
>>>     it well.
>>>
>>>     I don't claim to have expert knowledge on this, but I'm gradually
>>> getting better at it.
>>>
>>>     When I set out to write a program, or refactor a program, or modify
>>> a program, it helps to
>>>     set out my thinking in a clear way. And how I make it clear is to
>>> document my thoughts.
>>>
>>>     An outline is one good way to organize thoughts and is probably my
>>> main tool. But good
>>>     English prose is also helpful.
>>>
>>>     The key factor is "editing." In what sense do I mean that? Good
>>> writers do it, and the
>>>     Haskell documentation does it. I mean (1) brevity and (2) good flow.
>>> To achieve brevity,
>>>     you must think about the essence of each statement and trim away the
>>> unnecessary stuff.
>>>     Good flow refers to how the document builds up and modifies your
>>> concepts as you read it.
>>>     A document can actually mirror an effective learning process, or
>>> influence and change your
>>>     process.
>>>
>>>     I work with my documentation, making several editing passes. By the
>>> time I'm done, I am in
>>>     a great position to write a concise and flexible program.
>>>
>>>     It's interesting that not only is Haskell a concise language, but
>>> the Haskell library
>>>     documentation is concise. Contrast that with the Python
>>> documentation which often wanders
>>>     about into areas that are irrelevant--it could easily be cut into
>>> one third its present size.
>>>
>>>     Mike
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     _______________________________________________
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>>>     http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jeffrey Benjamin Brown
>>
>>
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-- 
Jeffrey Benjamin Brown
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