> On Tue, 2009-07-14 at 03:01 -0700, Michael Vanier wrote: > > Haskell is a wonderful language (my favorite language by far) but it is > > pretty difficult for a beginner. In fact, it is pretty difficult for > > anyone to learn in my experience, because it has so many advanced > > concepts that simply don't exist in other languages, and trying to > > absorb them all at once will likely be overwhelming.
Then Duncan said: > As a contrary data-point, at Oxford we teach functional programming > (using Haskell) as the first course at the very beginning of the > computer science degree. I know several other universities also use FP > and Haskell very early on in their CS courses. At Imperial College, Haskell's also the first language the undergrads touch and people seem to like it. I think it's easy to forget how reassuring it is to be surrounded by lots of other beginners when one is learning something completely new - like programming. A lot of people here seem to be suggesting that haskell is an advanced language for advanced programmers. I think it more likely that people whose first experience of haskell is online are likely to come into contact with mostly advanced programmers in here and on #haskell. This is great, because they can teach us things - but it can also be off-putting, because they can seem so far beyond us. Imagine trying to learn basic arithmetic in a university common room full of category theorists. Personally, I think that haskell is a great beginners language. Just don't feel that you have to be able to keep up with all the #haskellers. It's absolutely fine to not understand what a monad transformer is. G _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
