[Haskell-cafe] Coding katas/dojos and functional programming introduction

[Raphael Gaschignard]

Is this aimed for FP beginners who already know something like Java? I
think the thing to do here would be to come up with some tasks that are
genuinely tedious to write in a Java-esque (or Pascal-like) language, and
then present how FP solutions are simpler.

  I'm of the opinion that FP succeeds not just because of the tenants of
FP, but because most of the languages are terse and have code that is
"pretty". Showing some quick things involving quick manipulation of tuples
(basically a bunch of list processing) could show that things don't have to
be complicated with a bunch of anonymous classes.

  Anyways, I think the essential thing is to present a problem that they,
as programmers, have already experienced. The big one being "well these two
functions are *almost* the same but the inner-part of the function has
different logic" (basically, looking at things like map). Open up the world
of possibilities. It's not things that are only possible in Haskell/Scheme
(after all, all of these languages are turing complete so..), but they're
so much easier to write in these languages.

On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 7:41 AM Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 5:28 PM, Gautier DI FOLCO <
> gautier.difolco at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 2015-04-15 19:15 GMT+00:00 Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>:
>>
>>> Well, functional programming is very much like an elephant.
>>>
>>
>> I have the same thought about OOP some years ago, them I discovered then
>> first meaning of it and all was so clear and simple. My goal isn't to teach
>> the full power of FP, my goal is to give them inspiration, to suggest that
>> there is a wider world to explore.
>>
>
> Just clarify, this is a reference to the fable of the blind men and the
> elephant. What you think it is like will depend on how you approach it.
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