On 5/10/05, Bulat Ziganshin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello Sebastian, > > Tuesday, May 10, 2005, 8:39:23 PM, you wrote: > > SS> I think that runtime error > >> messages given in terms of VALUES instead of compile-time error > >> messages given in terms of TYPES are easier to understand for novice. > >> also, strict regulations on datatypes are needed for professional > >> program development, but will be just needless complication for > >> learning concept of programming itself. even for mathematician Ruby > >> will be a good choice > >> > > SS> I disagree. > SS> Types is a very important concept and I think that should be > SS> emphasized in the first lecture. If one goes through types _and_ > SS> values from the very beginning a strongly typed language will be of > SS> the same aid to beginners as it is to experts. > > imvho, exposing types to non-professionals is like exposing light > theory to a kid which just want to draw a picture. values are just > enough to these peoples
Why? A value has a type, that's very natural and also important. It's more like teaching someone who wants to paint what types of paint exist and how they work together. I strongly oppose the idea that one should hide fundamental concepts to newbies, I think that will lead to extreme difficulties later on. Even in untyped languages you need a concept of types. You WILL need to say something like "'apple + 5' won't work because they have different _types_ of values", so why not use a language which enforces this concept in practice? I think it's better to enforce things like this to the newbie, once they have a good understanding of types _then_ they might be able to use an untyped language responsibly, but until they do I think it's fine for the compiler to instruct them when they make a misstake instead of simply getting some weird runtime error. You don't need to expose some of the more advanced type-system hacks, but simply ignoring something so fundamental such as types is in my opinion not very helpful. I really see no validity in the standpoint that untyped languages are better to teach to the newbie. /S -- Sebastian Sylvan +46(0)736-818655 UIN: 44640862 _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list [email protected] http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
