[mercury-users] Mercury needs a Tutorial

[Ralph Becket]

Fergus Henderson wrote on 11 Feb:
> One thing I have considered doing is extending the language to provide
> special syntax for queries, as an alternative to defining main/2.
> This would be reasonably easy to implement, reasonably easy to specify
> semantics for, and it could make the language easier to teach.
> Programmers might also find it quite convenient.
> 
> However, when I floated this idea past the other Mercury developers,
> they weren't so keen...
> 
> Any comments on this idea?

Hmmm... I'd be inclined to stick with main/2 - it's a rock for C
programmers to cling to initially.

> > 5. How far is the tutorial expected to take people?
> 
> The further, the better.  But we could start off small and then
> gradually extend it.  Once we have a basic tutorial in place,
> different people could work on different sections.

Good plan.

> I'd certainly be happy to give feedback.

Much appreciated (and Tyson).

Okay, I'll start e-mailing drafts for comment, probably from next
week.

Ralph

-- 
Ralph Becket  |  rwab1 at cam.sri.com  |  http://www.cam.sri.com/people/becket.html