Re:Ask HN: which functional language to learn?
by Stasyan on Monday July 06, 2009 @12:35PM
(#689907)
I learned OCaml first, and then switched to F#. Out of all languages I know (OCaml, Java, C#, C++, Python, VB, Lisp) - IMHO F# is the best one. Learning curve is pretty steep though, once you move past the basics.
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Re:Ask HN: which functional language to learn?
by zikzikzik on Monday July 06, 2009 @12:56PM
(#689946)
> Learning curve is pretty steep though
Do you mean it gets difficult, or that progress gets fast?
Re:Ask HN: which functional language to learn?
by Stasyan on Monday July 06, 2009 @01:36PM
(#690039)
It gets difficult.
F# has pretty much everything from every other functional language. Even though F# is very consistent language.
There are a lots of concepts to understand.
Re:Ask HN: which functional language to learn?
by noblethrasher on Monday July 06, 2009 @02:33PM
(#690171)
No, it has just a few concepts that if taken seriously (i.e. don't try to write imperative/prescriptive code) will lead to the natural discovery of many of its other features (or you'll end up inventing them yourself).
Re:Ask HN: which functional language to learn?
by Stasyan on Monday July 06, 2009 @03:17PM
(#690260)
I am talking about continuations and workflows -> these concepts are not that straight forward, especially if you are coming in from imperative programming background.
Re:Ask HN: which functional language to learn?
by noblethrasher on Monday July 06, 2009 @04:19PM
(#690372)
Fair enough. What I mean is that F# (and Haskell) can be useful without knowing about Workflows (and Monads). By the time you find yourself needing them you'd either invent them (fairly easily) or find them... It's not much harder than INNER JOIN in SQL which I also think most people would eventually invent if the language didn't have it.
Re:Ask HN: which functional language to learn?
by peregrine on Monday July 06, 2009 @02:03PM
(#690101)
Could also be the very new state of it with lack of good documentation.
Re:Ask HN: which functional language to learn?
by sdevlin on Monday July 06, 2009 @02:17PM
(#690142)
And the lack of existing code to take cues from. I looked at F# earlier in the year, and this was the thing that tripped me up the most. I can wrap my head around functional programming "in the small" pretty easily, but I'm pretty stumped about how to put together a full application.