_Some_ newcommers flounder because they expect Haskell to be just another VB / C++ / Java / whatever. (Do we really want to encourage these people to be learning Haskell in the first place?) (...)
I hope so. One of my most important motivations to try Haskell was that I thought it was radically drived by some ideas that were only beggining to show up in C++, and I'm happy to know I was right :) (And, really, I was scared by how much time is lost with misinformed critics about other languages.) My begginer problem: syntax was a *major* issue, and I only could overcome it with a lot of love for this language. The best reference I was able to find is this: http://www.hck.sk/users/peter/HaskellEx.htm and it's not exactly for begginers. Best, Maurício