[Haskell-beginners] Re: All-in-one package?

[Ahn, Ki Yung]

Matt f wrote:
> Hey... I'm new to Haskell, been working in Java for 5 months and have 
> decided to move up. Haskell is very much different than what I'm use to 
> and I'm wondering if there is a all-in-one package I can download and 
> just press install to get everything needed for Haskell. Something that 
> includes compilers, libraries, wxHaskell, OpenGl for Haskell, ect... 
> Like how Visual basic or Netbeans are.

Install GHC and the Haskell platform.

> A few more questions:
> Is there an IDE?

Yes.  It is one called leksah.  It is also possible to use on Eclipse. 
I haven't used neither of them seriously, becuase I'm already a quite 
satisfied with the runnin ghci in the terminal.  ghci is a very decent 
interactive environment, far more convenient than any other existing 
scripting languages like ocaml, python, perl.  Ghci interactive 
environment has auto completion built in!  Press tab and it tries to 
auto complete a binding name that is visible in the toplevel.  I haven't 
seen such a user friendly interactive REPL other than ghci.

> If not, is there some program that will open Haskell files, edit them, 
> and be able to run them without any Terminal usage?
> Is there an official forum for Haskell?

You are arleady here, where else would you want to look for.  And, there 
are haskell-cafe mailing list and other haskell realted  as well. There 
is also #haskell IRC channel at freenode IRC servers.

> If Haskell had individual platform install packages installing 
> everything needed for Haskell without any hassle with a beginner 
> friendly forum and website, it'd become probably as popular as Java or 
> Vb.net. Is anything like this planned?

As I previously mentioned, we already have it, and its called the 
Haskell Platform.  I prefer using cabal-install and install only the 
packages that I need.

--
   Ahn, Ki Yung