3 ms·

A Type of Programming

125 points by AnthonBerg 7y ago

notduncansmith 7y ago
I would suggest putting the summary at the top, perhaps with a smooth-scrolling “Jump to main text” link.
AnthonBerg 7y ago
This is such a beautiful book. The writing brings Vonnegut to mind.
- smitty1e 7y ago
  Looks as good as "Building Git", which I'm currently enjoying. https://shop.jcoglan.com/building-git/ https://shop.jcoglan.com/building-git/ If it will get me over the monad hump with Haskell, all the better.
- kbr 7y ago
  I believe that the aesthetics and layout are inspired by Edward Tufte [1]. [1] https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/ https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/
- k0001 7y ago
  Thank you! I am glad you are enjoying it :)
erikpukinskis 7y ago
I wish the title was more descriptive (“which type of programming?”) or that the introduction said something about the direction of the book. As it is the only reason I would have for continuing is that I already wanted to read it. But “it’s a book about programming” is not much of a sales pitch. I guess if you love the style that is the reason to continue? Scrolling to the end, a better title might be “An Introduction to Haskell” and you need to provide your email address to read more than the first few pages. Sigh. I find the grandiosity hard to resist (“a whole type of programming, wow, sounds neat!”) but the author really seems to want to take us for a ride first. Edit: After he takes your email he asks for 5 euros to get access. Scammy.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Maybe it is an introduction to programming using types? I read some of the text, but I couldn’t figure out if this was really the spin or not.
- gjm11 7y ago
  Wow. "Sign up to read more. You will have immediate access ...", followed by an enter-your-email box. Do that and you immediately hit a paywall. No "immediate access" for you. That's ouright fraudulent, and I'm flagging this submission for it.
  - smitty1e 7y ago
    Is is a paywall? It looked as though one could opt not to pay a thing. I'll come back when I'm ready to pay.
  - kolektiv 7y ago
    Yup, also annoyed by the dark pattern. To add insult to injury, below $20, it removes the option to pay with a card, and only allows bitcoin - interesting approach to tax, perhaps! Whatever the reason, I don't use bitcoin, and even if I wasn't already annoyed by the bait and switch, I wouldn't be bothered jumping through so many hoops. What a shame, the content looked as if it might be good, but no chance of me giving money with that level of disrespect for the reader.
    - k0001 7y ago
      Thank you for your input. I'm sorry you felt this, I'll try to improve the user experience. I'll appreciate any ideas you may have about how to improve this. I am glad you enjoyed what you read, though :)
      - larkeith 7y ago
        I see you've changed the footer from the prior version ("Sign up to read more. You will have immediate access to over seventy chapters, to all future chapters as soon as they are published, and to a digital copy of the full book once it's complete"). This is a step in the right direction, but hiding price until you sign up remains problematic, while the "I want to read more!" button for email submission is disingenuous.
p1necone 7y ago
Flagged - I know complaining about paywalls is against the rules, but this is not a regular paywall - this is a scummy "lemme add you to my mailing list and only then will you find out I also want money" kind of paywall. (According to other commenters, I'm not willing to enter my email.) In case the author is reading - I actually quite like this "first chapter free" shareware model of book sales, it's just the misdirection I take offense to. Also if you're asking for peoples email addresses please be up front about all of the reasons you want them.
- k0001 7y ago
  Thanks for your input. The email address is so that you can login afterwards, whenever there are new book chapters to be read. I'll clarify this, thanks!
pliftkl 7y ago
I really enjoyed reading the first chapter, and I was looking forward to purchasing the book, but like others, I'm really turned off by your purchase process. Entering email and getting to a payment page where the easy ways to pay disappear below 20 EUR is really, really annoying. If you were to fix the purchase process and publish some sort of chapter outline of your book, I'd almost certainly purchase a copy.
sridca 7y ago
Previous discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/bbjq1o/a_type_of_programming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/bbjq1o/a_type_of_p...
kwhitefoot 7y ago
Could do with an executive summary at the top so that one doesn't have to wade through a lot of text to find out what the document is for.

125 points by AnthonBerg 7y ago

notduncansmith 7y ago

I would suggest putting the summary at the top, perhaps with a smooth-scrolling “Jump to main text” link.

AnthonBerg 7y ago

This is such a beautiful book. The writing brings Vonnegut to mind.

smitty1e 7y ago
Looks as good as "Building Git", which I'm currently enjoying. https://shop.jcoglan.com/building-git/ https://shop.jcoglan.com/building-git/ If it will get me over the monad hump with Haskell, all the better.
kbr 7y ago
I believe that the aesthetics and layout are inspired by Edward Tufte [1]. [1] https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/ https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/
k0001 7y ago
Thank you! I am glad you are enjoying it :)

erikpukinskis 7y ago

I wish the title was more descriptive (“which type of programming?”) or that the introduction said something about the direction of the book. As it is the only reason I would have for continuing is that I already wanted to read it. But “it’s a book about programming” is not much of a sales pitch. I guess if you love the style that is the reason to continue? Scrolling to the end, a better title might be “An Introduction to Haskell” and you need to provide your email address to read more than the first few pages. Sigh. I find the grandiosity hard to resist (“a whole type of programming, wow, sounds neat!”) but the author really seems to want to take us for a ride first. Edit: After he takes your email he asks for 5 euros to get access. Scammy.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Maybe it is an introduction to programming using types? I read some of the text, but I couldn’t figure out if this was really the spin or not.
gjm11 7y ago
Wow. "Sign up to read more. You will have immediate access ...", followed by an enter-your-email box. Do that and you immediately hit a paywall. No "immediate access" for you. That's ouright fraudulent, and I'm flagging this submission for it.
- smitty1e 7y ago
  Is is a paywall? It looked as though one could opt not to pay a thing. I'll come back when I'm ready to pay.
- kolektiv 7y ago
  Yup, also annoyed by the dark pattern. To add insult to injury, below $20, it removes the option to pay with a card, and only allows bitcoin - interesting approach to tax, perhaps! Whatever the reason, I don't use bitcoin, and even if I wasn't already annoyed by the bait and switch, I wouldn't be bothered jumping through so many hoops. What a shame, the content looked as if it might be good, but no chance of me giving money with that level of disrespect for the reader.
  - k0001 7y ago
    Thank you for your input. I'm sorry you felt this, I'll try to improve the user experience. I'll appreciate any ideas you may have about how to improve this. I am glad you enjoyed what you read, though :)
    - larkeith 7y ago
      I see you've changed the footer from the prior version ("Sign up to read more. You will have immediate access to over seventy chapters, to all future chapters as soon as they are published, and to a digital copy of the full book once it's complete"). This is a step in the right direction, but hiding price until you sign up remains problematic, while the "I want to read more!" button for email submission is disingenuous.

p1necone 7y ago

Flagged - I know complaining about paywalls is against the rules, but this is not a regular paywall - this is a scummy "lemme add you to my mailing list and only then will you find out I also want money" kind of paywall. (According to other commenters, I'm not willing to enter my email.) In case the author is reading - I actually quite like this "first chapter free" shareware model of book sales, it's just the misdirection I take offense to. Also if you're asking for peoples email addresses please be up front about all of the reasons you want them.

k0001 7y ago
Thanks for your input. The email address is so that you can login afterwards, whenever there are new book chapters to be read. I'll clarify this, thanks!

pliftkl 7y ago

I really enjoyed reading the first chapter, and I was looking forward to purchasing the book, but like others, I'm really turned off by your purchase process. Entering email and getting to a payment page where the easy ways to pay disappear below 20 EUR is really, really annoying. If you were to fix the purchase process and publish some sort of chapter outline of your book, I'd almost certainly purchase a copy.

sridca 7y ago

Previous discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/bbjq1o/a_type_of_programming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/bbjq1o/a_type_of_p...

kwhitefoot 7y ago

Could do with an executive summary at the top so that one doesn't have to wade through a lot of text to find out what the document is for.