Can't compile GHC

[Éric Jacoboni]

On 5/9/05, Daniel Carrera <dcarrera at digitaldistribution.com> wrote:

> I've been trying to learn Haskell.

Great... We are on the same boat :)

> I tried to compile GHC but it said taht it needed GHC to compile.

Yes, looks like GHC is a little picky to build, to say the least (i'm
working on OS X and i'm lucky, there are people interested enough to
make ghc 6.4 build fine on this platform).

> At this point I decide that I'll teach people Python instead of Haskell.
> I don't particularly like Python, but hey, it works.

Actually, i've had the same choice to do: i have to prepare a intro to
functional programming course. I've discovered Haskell and find it
particulary suited to my needs and tastes but when it comes to I/O i
was rather afraid (monads are not so easy to understand and there's
not documentation/tutorial in my natural tongue). So, i've considered
Python, too (because it had comprehension lists and first order
function, plus a simple print/read stance).

But Python is not a pure functional langage and i know what it will
happen if i use it: my students will be tempted by the procedural way.
Plus, they loose the opportunity to "think different".

So, i will go with Haskell. There are very good books/docs about it
(i'm currently the Thomson) and, forget the monads, i will simply
speak about IO and do...

Have you considered Hugs98? (don't know if it works on you platform),
but it's a great environment (compilation is not particularly needed
to learn a language).
-- 
Jaco