[Haskell-cafe] Tutorial on Haskell

Neil Davies semanticphilosopher at googlemail.com
Wed Apr 18 05:15:25 EDT 2007


Yep - I've seen it in course work I've set in the past - random walk
through the arrangement of symbols in the language (it was a process
algebra work and proof system to check deadlock freedom).

... but ...

Haskell even helps those people - if you've created something that
works (and you are at least sensible to create a test suite be it
regression or property based) - then there is more confidence that
they've coded "a" solution (if not a good one).

Haskell raises the value of formality (both ecomomically and in terms
of its caché) - changin the mindset of the "masses" - creating the
meme - that's tricky. Especialy if they're really off the B Ark!
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/golgafrincham.shtml)

Neil

On 18/04/07, Michael Vanier <mvanier at cs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> R Hayes wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > On Apr 17, 2007, at 4:46 PM, David Brown wrote:
> >
> >> R Hayes wrote:
> >>
> >>> They *enjoy* debugging ...
> >>
> >>
> >> I have to say this is one of the best things I've found for catching
> >> bad programmers during interviews, no matter what kind of system it is
> >> for.  I learned this the hard way after watching someone who never
> >> really understood her program, but just kept thwacking at it with a
> >> debugger until it at least partially worked.
> >
> >
> > I've seen this too, but I would not use the word debugging to describe
> > it.  I don't think I agree that enjoying debugging is a sufficient
> > symptom for diagnosing this condition.  There are many people that
> > love the puzzle-box aspect of debugging.  Some of them are very
> > talented developers.
> >
> > R Hayes
> > rfhayes<>@</>reillyhayes.com
> >
> >>
> >> Dave
> >>
> I agree with the latter sentiment.  I call the "thwacking at it"
> approach "random programming" or "shotgun programming", the latter
> suggesting that it's like shooting at the problem randomly until it
> dies.  I prefer not having to debug, but when I do have to I find it fun
> (up to a point).
>
> Mike
>
>
>
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