On Wed, 2007-31-01 at 03:25 +0300, Bulat Ziganshin wrote: 
>>  I'm very serious about the need for a "Haskell for the Working
>> Programmer" book.  And by this I mean a book and not a tutorial on
>> some part of Haskell which proves difficult.



> Agreed. Something I can keep on my desk for reference, as well as browsing.



how about developing a "contents" for this book and for cookbook?
just a list of problems you want to learn how to solve. perhaps, then
someone can fill some chapters. haskellwiki is a good place to start
it

I disagree with this part.  Books written by committee lack cohesion unless they have an overbearing editor at the helm.  What I've seen on the Wiki as regards idioms, standard practices, etc. -- and this is true of every language wiki I've ever seen -- is one proposed answer and then a chain of "but you could do it this way instead" with ever-increasingly-obscure ways of doing things.  Which would be the precise opposite of what a "Haskell for the Working Programmer" book should be like.

A book like this should be clear, straightforward and provide an introduction to Haskell for a working programmer, but an introduction that gets said programmer up and on the job quickly.  After using the (possibly even less than ideal) solutions provided in the book, the reader can then comfortably hone the newfound skills provided.

I do like the idea of developing a table of contents first and backfilling it, though.  I would amend the process, however, to avoid the WikiBloat that seems to inevitably follow when documentation projects get too open.  Instead of Wikifying it, I'd suggest instead that a "call for proposals" be put on the mailing list.  "I'm working on a chapter dealing with database programming.  I need to know how to do <insert whatever> in Haskell.  Could anybody interested in helping please submit some commented, functioning code for possible inclusion?"  Then the submissions could be made by email (and possibly even discussed on-list) and the editor/author of the book can take an executive decision and choose one if there are competing camps.

-- 
Michael T. Richter
Email: ttmrichter@gmail.com, mtr1966@hotpop.com
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"I have never seen the poor people being so familiar with their heads of state as they were with [Michele Duvalier]. It was a beautiful lesson for me. I've learned something from it." --Mother Theresa