foldable flexible bridges (putting foldable+traversable in prelude) Re: Burning bridges

[wren ng thornton]

On 5/21/13 11:02 AM, Casey McCann wrote:
> Being a beginner is by definition an ephemeral state; the entire
> purpose of being a beginner is to eventually stop being one. Don't
> design a language (or anything else) around the needs of beginners
> unless you intend that only beginners will use it, in which case one
> wonders why they're even bothering.

There's definitely merit in targeting a language for learners (e.g.,
Helium for Haskell, or Logo for Lisp).

Still, I don't see why the desire to teach newcomers is such an issue
here. That is, if we keep the Prelude minimal (as I discussed in my other
posts), then there's nothing keeping us from offering a PegagogicalHaskell
module which offers monomorphized versions of functions and whatever else
people think would be helpful. Beginners can import PegagogicalHaskell,
whereas advanced users can import Data.Whatever or MyFavoritePrelude.
What's the problem? The problem is trying to cram this all into the
Prelude, where it doesn't belong.

-- 
Live well,
~wren