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Notes

Me learning Haskell. The model here is "progress every day."

Content

The HaskellBook folder is me going through the Haskell Book

Other stuff is from Real World Haskell, but is also from before I realized I needed to step back from that and learn the fundamentals of Haskell from the ground up, from a "can actually do things" perspective rather than the "I read LYAH" and think I know things perspective.

Notes to Haskell Novices

Haskell has many features not found in other languages and for that reason and others requires a much firmer learning approach than other languages seem to require.

Examples:

  • Haskell Language Extensions change the syntax of the file you are looking at making it tough to figure out the syntax you know from the syntax the extension has introduced. Worse, "modern" Haskell involves having a working knowledge of more extensions than one might imagine.
  • Like many Functional languages, Haskell reading requires working familiarity with a basic set of functions before you can even tell yourself basic stories about what some code is doing. Examples of this include functions like '$', '.', along with data constructors, type constructors, tuple constructors, matching etc.
  • Thinking that "Haskell is a Lazy language" really misses the reality that instead of being "eager" or "lazy" Haskell really is giving the programmer a much more nuanced and rich control over evaluation techniques than is typically enjoyed in other languages.
  • Mathematical concepts, usually hidden in other languages, are not only prominent in Haskell, but are extremely valuable so as to be unavoidable in practice. Examples: the Lambda Calculus, functions, Monoid, Functor, Applicative, Monad and many more.
  • Haskell the language and Haskell the culture places a huge amount of emphasis on abstraction. The result of this is that both commonly discuss and implement levels of abstraction unheard of in other languages or communities. Examples of this are the abstraction ladder from value to function and then Functor, Applicative and Monad, and things like Kinds.
  • In my experience, getting into Haskell with previous language experience did not prepare me for the abstractions, correctness and re-usability the language and libraries commonly express.

By keeping the above in mind, and working on Haskell every single day I could, and by subscribing to every Haskell mailing-list, podcast and social-media feed, I have begun my journey in a way that I feel will lead to Haskell in production.

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