Names in Haskell (Was: [Haskell-cafe] Comments from OCaml HackerBr ian Hurt)

[Paul Moore]

2009/1/16 Derek Elkins <derek.a.elkins at gmail.com>:
>> I think the name issue is a red herring. The real issue is that, after
>> being confronted by a concept with an unfamiliar name, it can be very
>> difficult to figure out the nature of the concept. That is, it's not the
>> name itself that's the problem, it's the fact that trying to understand
>> what it means often leads you on an interminable
>> Alice-in-Wonderland-esque journey that never seems to get anywhere.
>
> I agree with interminable but certainly you go somewhere.  A lot of
> people like Haskell for this property.

I suspect the complaint people have is that *where* you go, is into
mathematics - and your interest may well be in computing, so that
while the diversion is enlightening, it's not of much practical use
right now.

> "How do you know that a monoid action is isomorphic to a monoid
> homomorphism into an endomorphism monoid?"
>
> "Well, I was trying to append two lists in Haskell..."

Precisely :-)

"...and I still don't know how so I gave up and did it in Python
because my boss wants the program today".

> For an actual interminable Alice-in-Wonderland-esque journey that never
> seems to get anywhere, try to write C# programs that inter-operate with
> Microsoft Office.

So where do you want to go to today? :-)

Paul.