Haskell as first programming language? #programming #functionalprogramming #haskell #scheme #python

Some thoughts on whether you should learn a functional programming language like Haskell as a first language.

[yerald_a]

I found Haskell very smooth to learn as a first, just for hobby purposes. I’d editors bash and JS scripts occasionally over the years, but didn’t really know enough to write anything or edit anything complex. I worked through Julie Moronuki and Chris Allen’s Haskell Programming from First Principles, and loved it. One of the best written educational books ever made.

[laughingvampire]

The problem with Haskell comes more from people like you who believe is mystifying or not a good first programming language than with people who haven't learned anything about programming.

All the erroneous preconceptions that programmers have about Haskell are the problem. A newbie has none.

I have known more newbies that learned Haskell successfully than programmers with prior experience that haven't complained about Haskell.

[EdouardTavinor]

i think scheme certainly benefits from having a very simple syntax. that must help a beginner :)

one of the things that i find unsatisfying about this sort of conversation is how functional programming is defined. i think for me, things that i like to use while programming are:
first-class functions
immutable data by default
strong types through inference
decomposition and pattern matching
tail recursion
monads like result, options, lists.
list comprehensions in general (map, fold/reduce, ...)
function currying

i think a lot of the languages often regarded as functional have a number of these features, though few have all (generally languages like haskell, ocaml, elm, ...). however i really do like scheme and clojure too :)

[abrahamvivas]

I would rather recommend pure FP language like Haskell instead of a mixed language. Thats because Haskell is extremely coherent with a beautiful syntax, wich makes the learning experience of this paradigm a lot easier in contrast to other languages that includes some FP features in an incoherent way... For an entertaining experience i would recommend "Learn you a Haskell for Great Good"... And take it as a hobby... slow paced puzzle solving entertainment....

[Instr]

Haskell is fine; it's a dual research / production language that's becoming more production-oriented.

The only caveat I'd offer to people learning Haskell is that you'd also want to pick up a more hackerish language at the same time, because Haskell relies on a lot of libraries with unfamiliar abstractions and makes it harder to make stuff.

But: Bricks (works on Windows now!), Monomer, Twain/Servant, PostgreSQL-Simple, that's all you need!

[jjoaoll]

Acctually with haskell u can use imperative-like programs too :)

[olexp]

Probably a fist time programmer would find the IO and type casting a bit tricky in Haskell, otherwise Haskell is very simple (basics of it), has the cleanest syntax. Why not.

[fenkraken]

As niche as Elixir is, I think it might be good as a first language? It’s dynamically typed too, so it’s easier for beginners.

[rafnicdao]

The downside with learning Clojure first is that the next languages you learn will annoy you in many ways

[kenneth_mata]

I've become more interested in OCaml or F# and you just happen to alreay have an F# series 😄

[maxwen]

OCaml is the best functional language to learn as a first language since it actually supports multiple paradigms.