Real Confusing Haskell

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:44:54 -0700

I can pinpoint the exact page in Real World Haskell where I became lost. I was reading along surprisingly well until page 156, upon introduction of newtype.

At that my point my smug grin became a panicked grimace. The next dozen pages were an insane downward spiral into the dark labyrinth of Haskell's type system. I had just barely kept data and class and friends straight in my mind. type I managed to ignore completely. newtype was the straw that broke the camel's back.

As a general rule, Haskell syntax is incredibly impenetrable. => vs. -> vs. <-? I have yet to reach the chapter dealing with >>=. The index tells me I can look forward to such wonders as >>? and ==> and <|>. Who in their right mind thought up the operator named .&.? The language looks like Japanese emoticons run amuck. If and when I reach the \(^.^)/ operator I'm calling it a day.

Maybe Lisp has spoiled me, but the prospect of memorizing a list of punctuation is wearisome. And the way you can switch between prefix and infix notation using parens and backticks makes my eyes cross. Add in syntactic whitespace and I don't know what to tell you.

I could still grow to like Haskell, but learning a new language for me always goes through a few distinct stages:

Curiosity -> Excitement -> Reality Sets In -> Frustration -> Rage ...

At Rage I reach a fork in the road: I either proceed through Acceptance into Fumbling and finally to Productivity, or I go straight from Rage to Undying Hatred. Haskell could still go either way.

briancarper.net (λ) (Tag: Real-World-Haskell)

Real Confusing Haskell