[Haskell-cafe] First steps in Haskell

[Bjorn Lisper]

Simon P-J:
>Daniel is right, by definition.  He is a new user.  He had difficulty.
>That much is incontrovertible.
>
>While he may seem unusual, perhaps he is only unusual in that he's told
>us about his experience rather than trying Perl instead.  For which,
>much thanks, Daniel!

Actually, I have sometimes wished that the various interactive Haskell
interfaces had the possibility to enter also declarations interactively, as
Daniel originally asked for. Lisp interpreters often support this to some
extent, so it is not out of line for a newcomer to expect it also for
Haskell. I often use hugs as a calculator, and sometimes it would be very
convenient to be able to make one or a few short declarations while making
some interactive calculations. It can be quite tedious to create and edit a
source code file on the side and then load it, when all you want is a short
declaration or two.  Would it be that complex to have an interactive
interface enter a "declarations mode" when it sees a declaration coming, and
then let it create, compile and load a temporary module when the declaration
is finished?

Björn Lisper