Re: String != [Char]

25 Mar 2012


      On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Greg Weber  wrote:
...
On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 7:26 PM, Gabriel Dos Reis
 wrote:
...
On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 9:09 PM, Greg Weber  wrote:
...
...
Problem: we want to write beautiful (and possibly inefficient) code
that is easy to explain. If nothing else, this is pedagologically
important.
The goals of this code are to:
 * use list processing pattern matching and functions on a string type
I may have missed this question so I will ask it (apologies if it is a
repeat):  Why is it believed that list processing pattern matching is
appropriate or the right tool for text processing?
Nobody said it is the right tool for text processing. In fact, I think
we all agreed it is the wrong tool for many cases.
Hmm, I would have thought that would be enough reasons not
to use that method -- "wrong methods" are hard to unlearn
and to get rid of.
...
But it is easy for  students to understand since they are already being taught to use
lists for everything else.
Perhaps we are underestimating their competences  and are complicating
their lives unnecessarily...
...
 It would be great if you can talk with
teachers of Haskell and figure out a better way to teach text
processing.
my suspicion is teachers of Haskell would want designers
of Haskell to make the good datatype for text the default :-) :-)

-- Gaby