[Haskell-cafe] Re: Tutorial uploaded

[Daniel Fischer]

Am Mittwoch, 21. Dezember 2005 13:31 schrieb Daniel Carrera:
> Udo Stenzel wrote:
> > Strange, I always thought predictable, understandable and above all
> > correct code would be the primary goal, with small and quick code coming
> > later.
>
> Depends on what you mean by "quick" and "small". Do you mean that the
> program should execute fast and have a small memmory foot-print? If so,
> I agree. If what you mean is that the programmer should be able to
> finish the project quickly and it shouldn't have too many lines of code,
> then I think those features are important.

I agree, and keeping the IO-part of your programmes small helps with that in 
my experience. And as Cale wrote, working from the pure core to the 
IO-coating is more fun (personal inclination, of course).
But yes, people want to write interactive programmes soon, so I think
"Chapter 2: Basic I/O"
where putStr(Ln), print, getLine, getChar, maybe also readFile and 
writeFile/appendFile are introduced, do-notation and '<-' are explained
is a good idea. However, a section about "Why a special IO-type", "more 
comprehensive explanations to come" and "how to use Hugs/ghci to develop and 
test your algorithms" should be definitely included.
That's my tuppence, feel free to disagree.

>
> > To write interactive Haskell code well, you have to understand
> > higher order functions.
>
> That's scary, that you need advanced knowledge just to do IO.
>
> > Unless you want to
> > teach people to program as they would do in Basic, that is.
>
> I don't know what you mean by that.
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel.
ditto!

P.S.: In May, there was a 'Daniel Carrera' around, too. Isn't that a strange 
coincidence?