[Haskell-cafe] Re: First steps in Haskell

[Donn Cave]

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005, Bayley, Alistair wrote:
...
> There should be a "getting started" page which says:
>  - download and install this interpreter (Hugs or GHCi)
>  - run it, type these expressions, and see the results
>  - create a HelloWorld program, compile and execute.
>  - now start the following tutorial... (BTW, the link to Hal Daume's
> tutorial from the Learning page needs fixing)

Is the interactive interpreter exercise worth the trouble?

Don't ask me, I have barely learned to use any of the interpreters
in interactive mode, but I have the impression that they're different
(where we came in), and you absolutely have to learn some things about
them that don't otherwise contribute to your ability to write programs,
and after all there are significant limits to what you can do there.

I understand that interactive mode can be useful, I'm just wondering
whether it belongs with Hello world in the scheme of things, or if
at that first step it would be better to focus on the language.

	Donn Cave, donn at drizzle.com