Programming in Haskell

This is the main textbook I'm using at the moment, though it's a little older. Seems to be the only Haskell textbook I have found targeted at people who haven't programmed before.

I'm nearly half way through. I would like exercises that are a bit meatier, a la the famed SICP, but otherwise it is pretty good. I don't think I have made so deep into any other programming textbook yet.
I hope to finish this one before the end of the month. Most of the chapters have taken me about 2 days so far, and there's only 13 chapters.

The Programmer Bear approves of what I'm learning, and has been supplementing my education with bits and bobs, like teaching me how to write tests for my exercises.

Switching Back to Vim

Exactly like it says on the cover.

The Ctrl + Alt key thing got too much for me pretty quickly. How do people who use emacs not get RSIs in their little fingers?

On the bright side, this is spurring me on to learn the Vim shortcuts more quickly.

Rewriting Library Functions

I've been busily rewriting a number of library functions at the behest of the PB.

(Formerly known as the Programmer Boyfriend, he shall henceforth be known as Programmer Bear. T-shirts and other goodies to come.)

Most of the functions I've been writing are meant to be applied to lists, such as qsort, drop and take, and are mostly recursive.

Overall, I find these exercises to be rather useful. They help me understand how these functions work, and give me tiny glimpses into 'real' programming.

Today, We Have Divided My Household

I switched to emacs today after the PB informed me that it doesn't have modes. 

So far so good. I like it better than Vim and it's annoying modes, certainly. 

There will be further reports on this matter. In the meantime, I appropriated the PB's hard copy of Learn You a Haskell for a Great Good and need to continue with my studies. 

PS This post is powered by mini oranges. 

Beginning My Induction into the Cult of Haskell

The Programmer Boyfriend (henceforth PB) is a card-carrying member of the Cult of Haskell. For the purposes of this blog, it is perhaps the most important thing to note about him. As far as he is concerned, Haskell is religion. Indeed, he speaks more poetically of Haskell than he does of his love for me. 

Naturally, my first attempt to learn programming involved Haskell. It failed terribly. It nearly put me off programming forever. A friend of mine, when told that the PB was intending to start me off with Haskell, informed me that I would either go crazy or become a genius. 

Then we moved onto Racket (with How to Design Programs and Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) and C (The C Programming Language). 

(I have not finished reading any of the above the textbooks.) 

After C, the PB figures that I would be much more open to Haskell, so here we are giving this another try. 

I will be reading/working through Real World Haskell and Learn You a Haskell for a Great Good concurrently. 

#1 Conversations

May: If I want to write a Haskell program in Vim, what ending should I put in the file name? 

PB: .hs 

May: Oh, you mean like dot High School?