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> I think that saying you can 'learn Haskell in a week' is really short sighted. You can learn to parse a Haskell program and write a guess-the-number program in a week, but learning how to write good Haskell is going to take months, if not years. That was exactly my point, sorry if it wasn't clear. > Really learning Haskell as an experienced programmer took as long as it took to learn Python as a novice, and I've heard similar reports from other people. I certainly agree that if you know, say, Java, learning C# probably isn't going to maximize your 'skill increase per time'. But saying that going from Java to Haskell, or even farther to something super-weird like Agda or Forth or Prolog, is just as easy as going from Java to C# is just wrong. I am not saying that the "Java after C#" learning curve is the same as "Haskell after C#". It isn't. But I believe that the general experience of abstract thinking that one learns in many years must give an advantage over a novice learner. I am not talking about a script-kiddie who spent five years hacking code, or somebody who has the same one year experience 20 times instead of real 20 year experience. I believe that if you spent your development life actively then you must get a new concept easier than a beginner. And not only that. Concepts of a paradigm or language leak into others. Linq in .Net leverages "monads". Eric Meijer, one of the creators of Linq, loves Haskell and they borrowed ideas from Haskell. Now, if one is a "too pragmatic" programmer, they can use Linq for years successfully and never get closer to understand monads. However is one takes the time and looks behind the curtains, they got closer to understand at least this one concept of Haskell. And I am pretty sure that over let's say 10 years you are exposed to many ideas in some way if you keep your eyes open. As I said, my gut feeling (can't tell how good the estimation is) is that in about six months I "get Haskell and fp". But it's not black or white: obviously spending 6 more years in the fp world would make a difference. There must be a decision made (and here I agree with gfodor) when the further gain doesn't justify the investment. I won't stop at 6th month if I don't feel the power yet :) |