[Haskell-cafe] Please allow beginners to vocalize code. >>= :: -> &&& <- -<

[Henning Thielemann]

On Tue, 8 Jan 2008, Richard Kelsall wrote:

> A tip for people explaining Haskell to beginners:
>
> The acts of reading and speaking are closely integrated in the brain.
> When I am unable to 'say' something it is much more difficult to 'read'
> and absorb the text. There appears to be a misconception that it somehow
> helps beginners to understand things if they are not told how to 'say'
> these strange new symbols. Certainly for me, and I would guess for most
> people, this idea is completely wrong. When I 'read' a new operator
> such as  >>=  I want know how to 'say' it.

'>>=' is spoken "bind"

> I don't mean that posts on Haskell-Cafe should do this, but books
> and articles aimed at people who haven't used Haskell before should
> always vocalize the symbols as soon as they are introduced.
>
> On a related note, if there isn't already, it would be nice to have a
> page in the wiki that gives good ways of vocalizing the operators and
> vocalizing them in simple code snippets. I might get round to doing
> this sometime, maybe just a table something like this :

Got idea, please go ahead! I suggest categories "Style" or "Syntax".


> Operator          Formal       Informal
> --------          ------       --------
> ::                has type
> ->                maps to        to
> example
> f :: Int -> Int                  f has type Int to Int

Is a symbol-by-symbol translation sensible? What about "f maps from Int to
Int", "plus maps Int to a function, which maps Int to Int"