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Paul Hudak, co-creator of Haskell, has died
- ColinWright 11y agoDeeply moving article[0] submitted a few days ago[1] when it became clear that he was in his last days. My condolences to all those who knew him. [0] http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hudak/journal/view/id/5538f5cea589b4216c04438a http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hudak/journal/view/id/5538... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9431017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9431017
- eblume 11y agoI just restarted my investigation of Haskell yesterday. This is very sad news. Haskell is a beautiful language, and while I still struggle to write even basic programs in it I can tell that every time I solve an issue I'm having I am becoming a smarter programmer. He will be missed!
- oconnore 11y agoCome hang out in #haskell-beginners on freenode :)
- QuercusMax 11y agoI started learning it on Tuesday, via learnyouahaskell.com. Half of what makes Haskell impenetrable to a non-Haskellite is the syntax, IMO; now that I'm starting to grok that, it really is quite wonderful. Very sad news indeed.
- creichert 11y agoThe syntax takes some getting used to but it's useful to point out that the core language is pretty small. Here are some links which might help: http://www.haskellforall.com/2014/10/how-to-desugar-haskell-code.html http://www.haskellforall.com/2014/10/how-to-desugar-haskell-... https://github.com/kqr/gists/blob/master/articles/simple-syntax-of-haskell.hs https://github.com/kqr/gists/blob/master/articles/simple-syn...
- vvpan 11y agoI dunno... I found actually solving problems in a functional way much harder than the syntax.
- QuercusMax 11y agoI've done enough functional-esque coding in ruby/python/js/java8 that I can generally figure out a functional solution to lots of problems. I have not actually attempted to build any real software with Haskell yet, however; I'm mostly at the toy-program stage.
- coolsunglasses 11y agoI teach Haskell and I'm working on a book http://haskellbook.com/ http://haskellbook.com/ with my coauthor. We've been testing with reviewers and it's been going pretty well. We've even been testing with my coauthor's 10 year old https://twitter.com/argumatronic/status/593845481140133888 https://twitter.com/argumatronic/status/593845481140133888 :) My guide for learning Haskell is here: https://github.com/bitemyapp/learnhaskell https://github.com/bitemyapp/learnhaskell You can get help in the IRC channel if you'd like as well. I don't recommend using LearnYouAHaskell. I feel a bit bad as Hudak's books were the only ones I hadn't checked out before starting on my book. Rectifying that soon.
- QuercusMax 11y agoCan you explain why you don't recommend LearnYouAHaskell? I'm genuinely curious.
- coolsunglasses 11y agoI get asked this and similar a lot, so I have a post outlining the problems we've had with various resources including LYAH: http://bitemyapp.com/posts/2014-12-31-functional-education.html http://bitemyapp.com/posts/2014-12-31-functional-education.h...
- killtheliterate 11y agoHe explains in http://bitemyapp.com/posts/2014-12-31-functional-education.html http://bitemyapp.com/posts/2014-12-31-functional-education.h...
- bbcbasic 11y agoI am following that guide to get me started. Taking the recommended courses, I finished the cis194 Spring 2013 course and I am getting through the NICTA course, with help from #Haskell on freenode IRC. Based on my experience the recommendations are good, but when working on material like this on your own it is a slog because both of these courses are designed to be taught live. So beware. However they are probably the best courses available online. It seems someone (maybe me someday!) needs to do an equivalent of "RailsCasts" for Haskell to make this more accessible. The NICTA course contains hard exercises building various functors, including transformers. It's a mind bender and oddly I had code that worked because the types matched up but I had no intuition as to why it actually worked! But it does raise your game to a new level.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoUnfortunate timing for myself, as well. This last week I've been meaning to get back to Haskell. Sad news.
- vitno 11y agoI had the fortune of meeting Paul a couple of years ago. He was a really nice guy & a very inspiring person to talk with.
- hyperliner 11y ago"In some ways, I think the best way to let go is to hold on. To hold onto the memories and the love that transcends the physical body. To hold onto those around you that have shared in loving the one you are letting go. To hold onto the only thing that is in your control- the actions you take in this unpredictable world." :-(
- jgrahamc 11y agoBe thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
- malandrew 11y agoYou're comment made me think of something else I read from time to time that resonates with me when someone passes away, especially if that person has contributed greatly like Paul has: No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. –John Donne https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html
- chipuni 11y agoI guess he finally returned his value? (I know... too soon, too soon.)
- DannoHung 11y agoPerhaps a more poetic way of saying it would be that his computation converged.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- te 11y agoWho woulda thunk it?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- felixgallo 11y agothis is a moment at which you should try to elevate yourself over cheap gags for karma points on a bulletin board.
- ffn 11y agoHe led an eagerly evaluated life.
- innguest 11y agoPaul Hudak died after making a huge contribution to the world. The research field he set in motion will keep on benefiting people for decades to come.
- jollari 11y agoI've met and knew Paul for a time while I was in high school. Despite my interest then with CS, at that time, I had no idea until now that he was the inventor of Haskell or was involved in Computer Science at all. Independent to his contributions to the industry that I now love; I knew him as an extremely friendly and energetic person. He was well liked by all who came in contact with him and his absence will be wide felt.
- jayaraj 11y agoI first learnt Haskell more than a decade back while working on a project at the Indian Institute of Science. Profoundly changed my perspective on programming.
- chaostheory 11y agoBeyond the memories of his friends and family, he'll live forever through his great work. I would think that's what most of us strive for.
- noblethrasher 11y agoThe Haskell School of Expression is a beautiful book that I recommend to anyone that wants to learn Haskell, or to just appreciate functional programming. Also, I motion for a black bar.
- iamcurious 11y agoIn case a mod is reading this, I second that motion.
- christianbryant 11y agoI third the motion...
- EToS 11y agofourth
- plasmonyc 11y agofifth
- chajath 11y agosixth
- rivd 11y agoseventh. Haskell made me remember why i love programming.
- appleslicemusic 11y ago8th
- tel 11y agoI agree, there ought to be a black bar.
- ghc 11y agoI had the fortune to work down the hall from Paul a couple of years ago. There was some confusion as to whether he had died yet when I got an email about the link I posted a few days ago, so today I find myself mourning for a second time over the death of a truly bright light who touched many people's lives.
- thanatosmin 11y agoI'm surprised his Wikipedia page is so sparse. Maybe now would be a good time for someone more knowledgable to expand it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hudak http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hudak
- BorisMelnik 11y agoRIP Paul, very sad. He has achieved what I have been trying to achieve my entire life (seemingly) an eternal memory or creating something great that will be remembered for generations to come. You will be missed.
- melling 11y agoHe was only 62. Bjarne Stroustrup is a couple of years older and Donald Knuth is nearing 80 and he's still productive. I was reading this a couple days ago: http://www.macstories.net/stories/life-after-cancer-how-the-iphone-helped-me-achieve-a-healthier-lifestyle/ http://www.macstories.net/stories/life-after-cancer-how-the-... It makes me wonder if in the very near future wearables will help give people enough added feedback, etc so they might get a few extra years. I'm sure someone with Paul's abilities had a lot more to contribute.
- nilammontez 11y agopuja bahtra kohinor
- kiyoto 11y agoApparently, Haskell had a side effect. RIP. What a great mind =/
- jug 11y agoHeaven will become beautiful now. I don't know more Haskell than I learnt at university, but even from that alone, I saw it was something special. I'll never forget that and the impression it made on me. I particularly remember a short application I had to write down on paper on the exam; I did it well enough and I thought what I wrote was so beautiful and simple... I think Haskell developers will know what I'm talking about. The best applications almost look like magic. If Haskell was a traditional writen language, I think it would have been pretty well known and studied, like hieroglyphs or some other language carving out its own niche. Sometimes I feel like this whole programming world has so many interesting, exciting, and thought provoking things going on within it that the rest of the world will never come to know. Haskell was one of those things to me and I think it's unfortunate that it's such a closed world.
- davedx 11y agoR.I.P.
- niix 11y agoWe lost a good one. I've been struggling with learning Haskell for awhile now, and this is even more motivation to put my nose to the grindstone and learn how this mans brain ticked.
- dsg42 11y agoHere's his eulogy from the Yale Daily News: http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/04/30/hudak-spirited-saybrugian-and-cs-prof-succumbs-to-cancer/ http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/04/30/hudak-spirited-sayb...
- caycep 11y agoI shopped one of his classes...quite sad, he was still young.
- jacobevelyn 11y agoI had the great fortune to have him serve as my senior advisor when I was an undergrad. A warm and wonderful man. I'll never forget the feeling of awe I had in one of his classes when he showed us that the function `fix`, defined as `fix f = f (fix f)`, could in fact be used to compute things!
- jvoorhis 11y agoPaul has been a huge inspiration for me. For a time, I would read printed copies of his papers during the ride home. He was also kind enough to make time for me when I emailed him with a question about his computer music code. I believe I am better off because of Paul and I am sure many more feel the same way.
- Enzolangellotti 11y agoWould you advise Haskell to someone who has just started programming (working on Learning Python the hard way) and is interested in learning mathematics (from the high school level onwards)? P.S. I want to study algorithms too but I'm just a beginner and the priority is mathematics (as it's one of the few subjects I seem to be able to concentrate on). I found a secondhand copy of Professor Sedgewick's book for ten euros, it's the manual for one of his MOOCs , should I go with it?
- dopamean 11y agoI imagine a lot of Haskellers would tell you yes. They love an opportunity to tell people who great Haskell is for anything. I'm not saying it's not in this case (I really have no idea) but I'm sure many would.
- loup-vaillant 11y agoHaskell is different. If your experience is limited to imperative OO languages, you will learn lots of useful things with Haskell. That alone justifies going out of your way to learn it.
- eru 11y agoIt's the one true faith!
- jberryman 11y agoFWIW Hudak's Haskell School of Expression was the first programming book I ever read, and probably the reason I do programming today.
- Enzolangellotti 11y agoI just checked a public library nearby and it occurs they might have a copy, thanks for the suggestion!
- teirce 11y agoHaskell is an amazing language. I've only spent a brief amount of time with it, but I've seen what others can do with it, and I'm very impressed. That said, I don't know that I'd recommend it to someone who has just started programming. I think that it'd be harder to appreciate it, since a lot of the rules that Haskell breaks / puts in place aren't things you've run into too often. I'd recommend becoming at least relatively familiar with normal programming paradigms and then giving Haskell a go. It certainly deserves your time, but without proper appreciation of what exactly it does, I think its unforgiving nature could become discouraging. edit: Of course, if you find normal paradigms boring / uninteresting, Haskell may be just the place for you. It's also really, really good for mathematic applications.
- owenversteeg 11y agoBlack bar anyone? For those who don't know, a black bar is for people that die that HN honors by changing the `topcolor` color to black. You can do it yourself in your profile. Fun history trivia: A few years ago the black bar used to be on top of the topbar. [0,1] Now it looks like this [2] [edit] I can't find any very recent deaths that confirm the change so I may be wrong. Whoops. [0] Steve Jobs, http://web.archive.org/web/20111006185350/http://news.ycombinator.com/news http://web.archive.org/web/20111006185350/http://news.ycombi... [1] Dennis Ritchie, http://web.archive.org/web/20111013063604/http://news.ycombinator.com/news http://web.archive.org/web/20111013063604/http://news.ycombi... [2] Tampermonkey Script https://gist.github.com/ultimapanzer/68f601ef9ab7f599d3ce https://gist.github.com/ultimapanzer/68f601ef9ab7f599d3ce
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- appleslicemusic 11y agoA wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful man.
- appleslicemusic 11y agoAn amazing man. Amazing pianist, and just awesome person.
- billrobertson42 11y agoI read his paper, "Conception, Evolution, and Application of Functional Programming Languages," and used it for work on a project while getting my master's degree. If you're interested in functional programming, I highly recommend it. It explains many of the things that you've heard about FP, and it very well written.
- likeclockwork 11y agoHis paper "An Algebraic Theory of Polymorphic Temporal Media" has been a constant source of inspiration for me for the last few years.
- pvaldes 11y ago"The family of Paul R. Hudak created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories" http://www.siskbrothers.com/obituaries/Paul-Hudak/ http://www.siskbrothers.com/obituaries/Paul-Hudak/