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

[Thomas Hartman]

sorry, wrong function.

should be

partitions [] xs = []
partitions (n:parts) xs =
  let (beg,end) = splitAt n xs
  in beg : ( case end of
               [] -> []
               xs -> partitions parts xs)


t = partitions [1,2,3] [1..10]


which is not quite as nice, I admit.

2009/3/25 Thomas Hartman <tphyahoo at gmail.com>:
> What about
>
> import Data.List
>
> partAt n xs =
>  let (beg,end) = splitAt n xs
>  in beg : ( case end of
>               [] -> []
>               xs -> partAt n xs)
>
> t = partAt 3 [1..10]
>
>
> It's tail recursive (I think!) and should be pretty easy to understand
> even for a beginner, no?
>
> 2009/3/24 Manlio Perillo <manlio_perillo at libero.it>:
>> Tim Newsham ha scritto:
>>>>
>>>> These friends are very interested in Haskell, but it seems that the main
>>>> reason why they don't start to seriously learning it, is that when they
>>>> start reading some code, they feel the "Perl syndrome".
>>>>
>>>> That is, code written to be "too smart", and that end up being totally
>>>> illegible by Haskell novice.
>>>>
>>>> I too have this feeling, from time to time.
>>>>
>>>> Since someone is starting to write the Haskell coding style, I really
>>>> suggest him to take this "problem" into strong consideration.
>>>
>>> When you think about it, what you are saying is that Haskell programmers
>>> shouldn't take advantage of the extra tools that Haskell provides.
>>
>> No, I'm not saying this.
>>
>> But, as an example, when you read a function like:
>>
>> buildPartitions xs ns = zipWith take ns . init $ scanl (flip drop) xs ns
>>
>> that can be rewritten (argument reversed) as:
>>
>> takeList :: [Int] -> [a] -> [[a]]
>> takeList [] _         =  []
>> takeList _ []         =  []
>> takeList (n : ns) xs  =  head : takeList ns tail
>>    where (head, tail) = splitAt n xs
>>
>> I think that there is a problem.
>>
>> The buildPartition contains too many "blocks".
>> And I have read code with even more "blocks" in one line.
>>
>> It may not be a problem for a "seasoned" Haskell programmer, but when you
>> write some code, you should never forget that your code will be read by
>> programmers that can not be at your same level.
>>
>> I think that many Haskell programmers forget this detail, and IMHO this is
>> wrong.
>>
>>> Haskell provides the ability to abstract code beyond what many other
>>> programming systems allow.  This abstraction gives you the ability to
>>> express things much more tersely.  This makes the code a lot harder to read
>>> for people who are not familiar with the abstractions being used.
>>
>> The problem is that I have still problems at reading and understanding code
>> that is too much terse...
>> Because I have to assemble in my mind each block, and if there are too many
>> blocks I have problems.
>>
>>> [...]
>>
>>
>> Manlio
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