[Haskell-cafe] First steps in Haskell

[Benjamin Franksen]

On Tuesday 20 December 2005 09:45, Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:
> | (mild) culture shock here. It is typical for people in the Haskell
> | community to view things in a rather principled way. A language
> | tutorial is supposed to introduce /the language/. If you want to
> | know how to compile or execute a Haskell program, well then, look
> | at the appropriate tutorial on the /implementation/. At first this
> | may appear like deliberately creating hurdles, but it isn't, it's
> | merely the way many (though not all) Haskell people tend to think.
> | They take it for granted that a new user is at least educated
> | enough to be aware of the difference between the language itself,
> | and its concrete implementation in the form of an interpretation or
> | a compilation system.
>
> I, for one, don't take it for granted!  Furthermore, I think the 
> Haskell community is pretty friendly; for example, a great deal of
> entirely non-condescending advice is given to newcomers on Haskell
> Café.  I'm certain there are hurdles, but I think on the whole they 
> are there by accident rather than design.

After reading again what I wrote above I see that it could be 
misunderstood. I was not talking about arrogance or any other form of 
unfriendlyness. I was merely formulating a theory for the reasons some 
of those hurdles are there in the first place (and occasionally get 
defended by some).

What I meant was that a certain mindset (that I, in principle, share and 
value) leads to a culture where the primary values somewhat differ from 
the mainstream, thereby sometimes creating hurdles for newcomers, 
particularly newcomers without a strong academic background.

Cheers
Ben