[Haskell-cafe] The problem with abstraction (Was: monte carlo trouble)

[Al Falloon]

Chad Scherrer wrote:
> I'm starting to think the power of abstraction is a blessing and a
> curse. Haskell's abstraction mechanisms are so powerful that it's
> generally possible to come up with a way to solve a given problem
> elegantly and efficiently. On the other hand, if a problem isn't so
> well studied, the bulk of the work is in finding the right
> abstraction, which forces generalization beyond what would otherwise
> be needed (though it'll be easier the next time!).

I agree with you, which is why I especially liked this post[1] by Claus 
Reinke that shows how you work from the "obvious" brute-force code and 
apply small transformations to come up with the beautiful abstracted code.

[1] http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/26066