Am Sonntag, 18. Dezember 2005 18:02 schrieb Daniel Carrera:
Chris Kuklewicz wrote:
Almost everything is explained under
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.4.1/html/users_guide/ghci.html
Ok. How would a visitor to the Haskell site find this document?
The point is that the visitor should know that he/she might need a document about GHCi if he/she wants to use GHCi. A introductionary document about Haskell might not explain a specific Haskell system. If you read a book which is about C++ in general, it won't tell you how to use the GNU C++ compiler or Microsoft Visual C++. If you know that you need some GHC(i) documentation, it shouldn't be much of a problem to find it. Go to the GHC homepage, click on "Documentation" and you will find "The User's Guide" whose short description tells you that it covers GHCi.
If this is the correct document for a beginner to start with Haskell, perhaps the site should be updated to point to it instead of the documents it currently points to.
At least, the site currently points to the GHC homepage.
I find some usability problems in the documentation section.
Which documentation section do you mean?
Think of usability in terms of barriers. If you have low barriers, a lot of people will have enough motivation to cross them and get started with Haskell. If the barriers are very high, only the most intent and motivated users will get started. Barriers are bad.
Maybe, some barriers could be lowered but I don't think that the barriers are currently "very high". What do others think?
Consider some barriers for a user who wants to learn Haskell:
* There's no way for a new user to figure out how to successfully run the simplest Haskell program.
There is! "The Hugs 98 User's Guide" and "The GHC User's Guide".
* The first tutorial listed requires the user to give up some personal information before getting the tutorial.
That's bad, of course.
These are very significant barriers.
Concerning the latter one, I agree with you.
Sure, it's not all bad. For example, Haskell has a friendly community (low barrier).
:-)
But the barriers that exist are a problem because they hit the person who is trying to take the very very first step. If you can make that *fist* step easier, more people will take it.
What do you mean with "*fist* step"? :-) :-)
[...]
Best, Daniel.
Best wishes, Wolfgang