Jonathan Cast wrote:
Why would I want to do I/O, when I don't know how to do anything
interesting with the input yet, or how to generate interesting output?
I think the `I/O comes first' attitude is *precisely* the difference
between mainstream programmers and Haskellers. The goal should be to
create more Haskellers, not just more people whose code happens to be
accepted by GHC.
So we need to teach these people not just about the syntax of the
language, but the high-level game plan for how to use Haskell
effectively. (Since it's SO different from normal languages.)
Trouble is, as soon as you attempt to write a chapter like that, guess
how many people are gonna actually read it? :-/
I've
got a Haskell book here (Hutton, 170 pages) that doesn't even mention
how to open a file!
That short, and you expect minor features like that (that not every
program even needs) to be squeezed in?
See, now it's things like that which stop more people attempting to
learn Haskell. Most programmers would consider this an extremely basic
and important thing to know, but Haskellers say "oh, THAT... it's not
really important" and the newbies go "wuh? Which planet are you from?
I'll go learn something less crazy, thanks."
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