[Haskell-cafe] Re: Non-technical Haskell question

[Gour]

John Goerzen (jgoerzen at complete.org) wrote:

> I think the two main things to do that would be:
> 
> 1. Write Haskell code that has a wide appeal (example: darcs)

Agree. One individual wrote an application of the (very) general interest 
'educating' programmers about Haskell's adequacy as a general programming
language (there are now several people contributing to the project and some
are even learning Haskell because of that :-)

> 
> 2. Fix Haskell weaknesses
> 
> Haskell weaknesses are things I've mentioned here before, and refer
> generally to documentation and breadth of the standard library (or ease
> of finding/installing additional packages).

This one requires, imho, some organized effort to be really successful.

> The Cabal people are working on the library problem.  I am too, by
> writing a bunch of code and also integrating a bunch of other code.

I recently found out about your library and hope to be able to use it
effectively when my skills become more developed.

> Three of us also have a very rough start on a hands-on, practical
> introduction to Haskell aimed at the experienced imperative programmer.

This is *very* important - bringing new people from the imperative (I do not
mean they should be 'converted' at any cost :-) camp by showing them how
Haskell can be very elegant solution for solving general programming problems
and than one does not require to hold a Ph.D. in a CS to be qualified to
program in Haskell.

There is plenty of theoretical work in the form of different papers, thesis
etc. dealing with the plethora of Haskell-related subjects, but to 'bring
Haskell to the masses', we need some more practicality. 

Hoping that Haskell community can recognize that more programmers can benefit
them, so let's welcoem them.

Sincerely,
Gour

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