On Jun 28, 12:25 pm, Daniel Gagnon <redalas...@gmail.com> wrote: > I believe that the success of ruby is due in great part to *Why's Poignant > Guide to Ruby* and *Learn You a Haskell* is doing the same for Haskell. It's > fun to read, it holds your hand in setting up everything you have to and it > makes you want to learn more.
I'm not so sure. Certainly things like the poignant guide made getting started with Ruby easier, but I'd argue that the success of Ruby has a lot more to do with how simple the core language it is and how easy it makes it to get simple things done. Conversely, despite increasingly beginner-friendly docs and one-shot installers I don't get the impression there's a bit upsurge of interest in Haskell outside of circles of elites or language afficionados. Haskell just isn't the kind of language that lets you slap a couple of web forms on a database 30 minutes after getting started. It's a power language for power users, like Clojure. I've been following FP for about ten years now and in that time I've seen Ruby and Python grow like gangbusters while languages like Haskell make very small, incremental inroads into niche areas. I don't expect this to change. Again though, I'm all for making the beginner's experience no harder than it absolutely has to be. No point having people turned away by things extrinsic to the language. I often find myself frustrated browsing through the docs that there aren't concrete examples for most of the functions in the API. I always have to google their usage or find an example in the clojure code. I'd be happy to help flesh out the docs with some usage examples if this kind of help is wanted. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
