On Tue, 8 Jan 2008, Richard Kelsall wrote: > A tip for people explaining Haskell to beginners: > > The acts of reading and speaking are closely integrated in the brain. > When I am unable to 'say' something it is much more difficult to 'read' > and absorb the text. There appears to be a misconception that it somehow > helps beginners to understand things if they are not told how to 'say' > these strange new symbols. Certainly for me, and I would guess for most > people, this idea is completely wrong. When I 'read' a new operator > such as >>= I want know how to 'say' it.
'>>=' is spoken "bind" > I don't mean that posts on Haskell-Cafe should do this, but books > and articles aimed at people who haven't used Haskell before should > always vocalize the symbols as soon as they are introduced. > > On a related note, if there isn't already, it would be nice to have a > page in the wiki that gives good ways of vocalizing the operators and > vocalizing them in simple code snippets. I might get round to doing > this sometime, maybe just a table something like this : Got idea, please go ahead! I suggest categories "Style" or "Syntax". > Operator Formal Informal > -------- ------ -------- > :: has type > -> maps to to > example > f :: Int -> Int f has type Int to Int Is a symbol-by-symbol translation sensible? What about "f maps from Int to Int", "plus maps Int to a function, which maps Int to Int" _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list [email protected] http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
