[Haskell-cafe] about Haskell code written to be "too smart"

[Jonathan Cast]

On Tue, 2009-03-24 at 16:43 -0700, Donn Cave wrote:
> If he really intended to promote some dumb code as a better
> alternative to some otherwise equivalent smart code,

`Smart' is Manlio's term --- or, rather, his characterization of his
friends' reaction upon seeing some inscrutable piece of (apparent)
Haskell golf or (seemingly) pointless code.  The code seems excessively
clever to them; when Manlio's example is merely clear, well-written,
concise, and declarative, rather than operational, in intention.

> ...

> Go ahead and write smart, clearly the benefits outweigh the cost,
> but tell us that there's no cost, no problem here if a reader who
> knows Haskell has a hard time following?

What reader who knows Haskell?  We have a programmer who is,
self-confessedly, just learning Haskell, not really proficient; we have
is friends, who, by his statement of the problem do not know Haskell at
all; and we have some un-specified group of other developers who, by
selection, barely know Haskell or do not know it at all --- that is,
developers who are still in the process of learning.  I think your
``reader who knows Haskel'' has no-where to here figured in the
discussion.

jcc