I started learning Haskell by reading the Report, and I warmly recommend
that strategy. In particular, I just skipped over the terminology that
didn't make sense to me yet, and I didn't try too hard to keep the big
picture in my head (suggestion to future versions: put all the BNF diagrams
in the same place!)
Even with a rudimentary read-through, I was already advanced beyond the
likes of LYAH and ready to start running simple programs in ghci. Even
today I sometimes know things about syntax that surprise my colleagues.
I didn't need to know monads yet. The build tool challenges were a bigger
stumbling block at that point.
But best of all, I was familiar with the reference material, so I could
easily go back and reread things when necessary!
On Fri, 17 Sep 2021, 23.40 Viktor Dukhovni,
On Fri, Sep 17, 2021 at 09:14:23PM +0100, Tom Ellis wrote:
On Fri, Sep 17, 2021 at 03:47:19PM -0400, Viktor Dukhovni wrote:
I haven't yet run into a "Haskell the language" book for experienced programmers that cuts to the chase and covers Haskell concisely a la K&R, focusing much more on the language than on how to write code (only as much code as it takes to minimally illustrate a language feature).
The Haskell Report is a good start.
I agree that the report is a useful reference, but it is a specification, not a book from which to learn the language. I wouldn't actually suggest that anyone learn C by reading the C11 specication, or Haskell by working their way through the report.
The report would of course be a useful source of topics and material for a Haskell the language book.
-- Viktor. _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list To (un)subscribe, modify options or view archives go to: http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe Only members subscribed via the mailman list are allowed to post.