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Comment by Legion | Hacker News Reader

I don't write Haskell, but the documentation on that page almost made me wish I did.

Other projects, take notes.

This kind of documentation is rare for Haskell projects, many other attempts failed silently gaining traction because documentation writing is usually the last item on the todo list for haskell projects, really glad this one took such an effort for it!

> documentation writing is usually the last item on the todo list for haskell projects

That's unfair. Documentation writing is usually the last item for software developers. Full stop.

Yes you are right, it was unfair to say that its because it is the last todo item for Haskell projects. However I feel that it is even more important for Haskell projects to actually do that last item. I've seen several webframework projects like hApps, Happstack, turbinado which are probably great pieces of software but hard to get started on. Personally for me it is a lot harder to start doing Haskell web development coming from a background of MVC based web development. Even though I know Haskell better than python or ruby, it is easier for me to pick up python or ruby frameworks because the way I think in writing web applications (which is mainly imperative). This is where great documentation comes into play. Snap framework seems to offer this transition easier, so will definitely take a peak at it!

I was trying to get going with yesod earlier this evening, and all props to Michael Snoyman, but seeing the Snap Web site makes me far more motivated to try it, and more confidence in what it does.

But, as dons pointed out, crappy docs is not limited to Haskell by any means.

If you want to see your project gain traction it has to be stupid easy for people to jump in and start playing, and solid Web site with serious docs is a big win there (as are project generators and copious examples).

I thought much the same thing. Writing good documentation is hard, and the effort that must have gone into this site is impressive. My own project documentation is admittedly nowhere near this.

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