2009/7/16 Daniel van den Eijkel
In an ideal world, Haskell would be a perfect first programming language.
But consider: If someone without any programming background learns Haskell as first language, she or he might have big problems using any other language after that. Unlearning what you can do with Haskell is much harder than unlearning imperative thinking. (I had to learn PHP after I was used to write in Haskell, and it was no fun) I don't want to miss the great experience of learning Haskell *after* Scheme (and Scheme after C), and I would not like to deprieve anybody of such an experience. Or what should they have for dessert?
I think the transition from one paradigm to another is always hard, whatever the direction. That's why it's a paradigm.