[Haskell-cafe] Why Haskell is beautiful to the novice

[Silvio Frischknecht]

Hi,

In my opinion, Haskell is a terrible first language to learn.

It has a very complicated type-system, and it's restriction to purely
functional programming does not convey very well how (current) computers
work. Current computers work by you giving them an step by step guide
what to do. This I think is what should be at the base of any
beginners-programming course.

There are also a lot of very basic data structures that can simply not
be used in purely functional code like hash tables, pipes or random
access arrays.

Haskell also requires quite a bit of intelligence and perseverance to
master. So unless your kids are all geniuses I would not recommend it.

Python would by my language of choice. You won't have to worry about low
level stuff or typing, but can still write those step by step programs.

Cheers

Silvio