[Haskell-cafe] Re: [Haskell] Probably a trivial thing for people knowing Haskell

[Chris Eidhof]

I think it might be more appropriate to move this discussion to  
haskell-cafe.

On 19 okt 2008, at 17:24, Friedrich wrote:
>> Learn to love types:  one of the neat things about Haskell is that if
>> you can write down the type of a function then you have usually done
>> 90% of the work of writing the code for it.
> Well I disagree. But that's another story.

Well, it's definitely not true when you're starting out with Haskell.  
The thing is: once you start to think in types it does work like this.  
You just think: what do I need as my input and what's my output.  
That's what you write down as your type and you're almost done! It's  
very similar to test-driven development; the point with TDD is not so  
much about making sure your program is correct: the big win (for me)  
is that it helps you think about the design of your program. The same  
holds for types.

>
>
>> Another is that in
>> general, if you can't express the type of a function, it means you
>> haven't thought through what you're trying to do.
>
> No  that's not true. The use implies that. However I'm not advice
> resistant and will see if I use types. But IMHO that's should be job
> of the environment  to figure out  correctly and most of the time
> Haskell does "guess" right. And I surely can ask for the types.

I agree. However, sometimes, when things get really complex, you can't  
figure out a way to write down the code. That's when it can be handy  
to start out from the types and slowly work towards the definition.

At first, you'll think that types are there to make your life harder.  
After a while, you'll start to love them and to be honest: I feel  
quite uncomfortable programming in an untyped language these days ;).

-chris