I'm a part time tutor even though I don't look Elizabethan
I was trying to lower the learning curve for students
Using square brackets for array indexing in Haskell would be more a case of putting a stumbling block in their way than lowering the learning curve. Fortran uses A(I), not A[I], and has for the last fifty-some years. The official definition of Simula 67 uses A(I) as well, despite its predecessor Algol 60 using a[i]. COBOL uses A(I), and has done so nearly as long as Fortran. PL/I (yes, it still exists) uses A(I), not A[I]. BASIC uses A(I), this is still so in Visual Basic.NET. If memory serves me correctly, MINITAB uses parentheses, not brackets. Is a pattern beginning to emerge? Lying to the students by implicitly telling them "all programming languages use square brackets for array indexing" will be doing them no favour. Even lying about Haskell is no kindness.