[Haskell-cafe] Haskell Weekly News: January 09, 2007

Donald Bruce Stewart dons at cse.unsw.edu.au
Mon Jan 8 19:42:04 EST 2007


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haskell Weekly News
http://sequence.complete.org/hwn/20070109
Issue 56 - January 09, 2007
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Welcome to issue 56 of HWN, a weekly newsletter covering developments
   in the [1]Haskell community.

   More libraries and applications for the new year, and the Haskell
   Hackathon gets underway!

   1. http://haskell.org/

Announcements

   Happy: LALR(1) parser generator. Simon Marlow [2]announced version
   1.16 of [3]Happy, the parser generator system for Haskell. Changes
   from version 1.15 to 1.16 include switching to Cabal, a new %error
   directive, new production forms, and attribute grammar support. Happy
   version 1.16 is required for building GHC version 6.6 and later.

   2. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14726
   3. http://www.haskell.org/happy/

   Alex: lexical analyser generator. Simon Marlow [4]announced version
   2.1.0 of [5]Alex. Changes in Alex 2.1.0 vs. 2.0.1 include switching to
   Cabal, and slight changes to the error semantics.

   4. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14728
   5. http://www.haskell.org/alex/

   rdtsc: reading IA-32 time register. Martin Grabmueller [6]announced
   version 1.0 of [7]package rdtsc has just been released. This small
   package contains one module called [8]'Rdtsc.Rdtsc', providing the
   function 'rdtsc' for accessing the 'rdtsc' machine register on modern
   IA-32 processors. This is a 64-bit counter which counts the number of
   processor cycles since the machine has been powered up. Using this
   instruction, you can make very precise time measurements which are
   independent of the actual CPU frequency.

   6. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/18095/
   7. http://uebb.cs.tu-berlin.de/~magr/projects/rdtsc/
   8. http://uebb.cs.tu-berlin.de/~magr/darcs/rdtsc/

   monadLib 3.0. Iavor Diatchki [9]announced a new version of
   [10]monadLib, a collection of standard monad implementations. Some of
   the changes compared to the previous version: the whole library is in
   a single module MonadLib.hs (~500 lines); simpler and more symmetric
   API; removed the (generic) monadic combinators; removed the search
   transformer; rewrote some transformers in the 'traditional' way
   (exceptions and output); there is an optional module that defines base
   monads corresponding to each transformer.

   9. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14714
  10. http://www.csee.ogi.edu/~diatchki/monadLib

   Shellac 0.6. Robert Dockins [11]announced a simultaneously release of
   the following related packages: Shellac 0.6 Shellac-readline 0.3 and
   Shellac-vty 0.1. [12]Shellac is a framework for building
   read-eval-print style shells which uses configurable backend plugins.
   The major new feature of this release is the new Shellac-vty backend
   package, which uses the [13]new Vty library terminal I/O directly. It
   currently has basic line editing keybindings, paging, and a command
   history. The main package and Shellac-readline updates consist of
   minor API updates.

  11. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14715
  12. http://www.eecs.tufts.edu/~rdocki01/shellac.html
  13. http://members.cox.net/stefanor/vty/

   IntelliJIDEA for Haskell. Tony Morris [14]announced syntax
   highlighting support for [15]Haskell in IntellijIDEA, released under a
   BSD licence.

  14. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14719
  15. http://www.workingmouse.com/research/IntelliJIdea%2DHaskell/

   Yampa + GADT for GHC 6.6. Joel Reymont [16]announced a cabalized
   [17]version of Yampa + GADT for GHC 6.6. Joel also sought comments on
   cabalisation, testing and example for this package.

  16. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/18215
  17. http://wagerlabs.com/yampa

   HNOP. Ashley Yakeley [18]updated the status of [19]HNOP, the Haskell
   library for doing nothing. It has recently been split into two Cabal
   packages: 'nop', a library of no-op services, and 'hnop', a program
   that uses nop to do nothing. Both packages can be found in darcs. The
   two packages are intended to be templates for Cabal projects, so I'm
   interested in making them as canonical and 'best practices' for
   packaging libraries and executables.

  18. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14720
  19. http://semantic.org/hnop/

Haskell'

   This section covers the [20]Haskell' standardisation process.

     * [21]Rough draft of informal pattern-guard (qualifiers) explanations

  20. http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/haskell-prime
  21. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1982

Discussion

   instance Monad Set, using GADTs. Roberto Zunino [22]announced a
   definition of the Set datatype, with the usual operations, such that
   it can be made a member of the Monad class.

  22. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/18118

   GADTs are expressive. Jim Apple [23]described a data type which holds
   only those terms of the untyped lambda calculus that are reducible to
   normal form, using GADTs

  23. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/18210/focus=18210

   Hackage interface. Ross Paterson [24]set up (temporarily) a simple
   first cut at an [25]interface to the Hackage package database. On a
   related note, there was some [26]discussion for home pages for Hackage
   projects, and collecting statistics.

  24. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/6025
  25. http://ross-paterson.dyndns.org/~ross/hackage/
  26. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/6035

Conference roundup

   The Haskell Hackathon. Hac 2007 [27]is being held this week, January
   10-12th, in Oxford, with around 20 Haskell coders from across the
   world gathering to hack on libraries and practical tools for Haskell.
   Work is planned for at least hackage, Cabal, bytestrings, binary IO,
   http, GHC, YHC, Hoogle, DrHaskell, WinHugs, GHCi debugger, crypto,
   QuickCheck 2, Haddock and more besides. Notably, some graduates from
   this year's Google Summer of Code projects will be attending, with
   plans to integrate their work into the main project branches. Happy
   hacking everyone!

  27. http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Hac_2007

Blog noise

   [28]Haskell news from the blogosphere.

     * [29]Liberating Myself from the von Neumann Style
     * [30]First impressions of Haskell: Whoa!
     * [31]Comparing Gzip Code Reduction
     * [32]Simple demonstration of Haskell FFI
     * [33]Does Functional Programming Matter?
     * [34]2006 in review
     * [35]Haskell script to replace tabs
     * [36]Functional programming is functional
     * [37]The shock of the forgotten
     * [38]Category theory
     * [39]Does Haskell need macros?
     * [40]On darcs
     * [41]Learning things
     * [42]Folds for imperative programmers
     * [43]Dammit all! I've been blubbed
     * [44]Getting started with installing third-party Haskell packages
     * [45]A Nice Way to Learn FP
     * [46]Learning Haskell
     * [47]Haskell and Eclipse
     * [48]Haskell and Eclipse: building a server executable
     * [49]What makes a programming language more productive?
     * [50]Composability and Productivity
     * [51]Arithmetic coding in Haskell
     * [52]A quick and dirty theorem prover in Haskell
     * [53]Haskell is Fun!
     * [54]2007, the year of software reliability?
     * [55]Haskell, bondage-and-discipline and separation-of-concerns programming
     * [56]Type systems as safety belts
     * [57]It's Haskell!
     * [58]Two promising Haskell projects: Vital and Pivot
     * [59]Exceptions and interrupts

  28. http://planet.haskell.org/
  29. http://blogs.nubgames.com/code/?p=4
  30. http://blogs.nubgames.com/code/?p=15
  31. http://blogs.nubgames.com/code/?p=16
  32. http://blog.acolyte.co.za/articles/2007/01/01/simple-demonstration-of-haskell-ffi
  33. http://denkspuren.blogspot.com/2007/01/does-functional-programming-matter.html
  34. http://koweynlg.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-thesis-2006-12-31.html
  35. http://chill-yo.blogspot.com/2007/01/haskell-code-replace-tabs.html
  36. http://gearon.blogspot.com/2006/10/functional-programming-is-functional.html
  37. http://www.serpentine.com/blog/2007/01/01/the-shock-of-the-forgotten/
  38. http://comblog.net/hnbeck/archive/2007/01/05/2384.aspx
  39. http://neilmitchell.blogspot.com/2007/01/does-haskell-need-macros.html
  40. http://simulacra.in/2007/01/darcs/
  41. http://koweynlg.blogspot.com/2007/01/zommmmbieeee.html
  42. http://blog.tmorris.net/folds-for-imperative-programmers/
  43. http://withoutane.com/rants/2007/01/damn-you-haskell
  44. http://www.serpentine.com/blog/2007/01/05/getting-started-with-installing-third-party-haskell-packages/
  45. http://monadnation.blogspot.com/2007/01/nice-way-to-learn-fp.html
  46. http://www.timeblog.net/2007/01/06/haskell/
  47. http://cohatoe.blogspot.com/2006/12/simple-example-walkthrough-ii.html
  48. http://cohatoe.blogspot.com/2007/01/building-server-executable.html
  49. http://kawagner.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-makes-programming-language-more.html
  50. http://cogito.blogthing.com/2007/01/07/composablility-and-productivity/
  51. http://vandreev.wordpress.com/2007/01/07/arithmetic-coding/
  52. http://vandreev.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/quick-and-dirty-theorem-prover/
  53. http://onthebalcony.wordpress.com/2007/01/08/haskell-is-fun/
  54. http://jguk.org/2007/01/2007-year-of-software-reliability.html
  55. http://syntaxfree.wordpress.com/2007/01/08/haskell-bondage-and-discipline-and-separation-of-concerns-programming/
  56. http://programming.reddit.com/info/xbc7/comments/cxfs0
  57. http://e-scribe.com/news/322
  58. http://factor-language.blogspot.com/2007/01/two-promising-haskell-projects.html
  59. http://www.weaselhat.com/2007/01/08/exceptions-and-interrupts/

Quotes of the Week

     * Eric: The Haskell [code] contains no redundancy. In fact, in all
       the [Haskell] code I've written, in both production and play, each
       idea is expressed once and only once. It is the Zen ideal of
       perfect code. And thats never happened to me before.

     * nostrademons: Haskell is in a similar position [to Scala] - a
       complex language with many sustaining innovations - but it has one
       major disruptive innovation. Purity. Now, the question is whether
       that can be leveraged in a way that makes it useful in some market
       that existing imperative languages can't reach. My bets are on
       concurrency...

     * Excedrin: Isn't OO deprecated?

     * dpiponi: [monochrom] Nevermind monads. Use arrows. Come join the
       Dart Side! [dpiponi] Never mind arrows. Use comonads. Cojoin the
       other side.

     * nilsi: #haskell is better than Google

     * sigfpe: I think Haskell is a great language for short attention
       spans. You can get so much done in one line before you get bored.

     * timthelion: Oh wait, I LOVE foldr!! And I have only been learning
       Haskell for hours

     * kowey: All the things with guards are just there to siphon off the weirdos

     * Eric: [Haskell] astonishes me at every turn with its beauty and
       elegance. I've never felt such power. Haskell has brought back a
       joy in programming that I didnt even know I was missing.

     * Paul Johnson: Mutable state is actually another form of manual
       memory management: every time you over-write a value you are
       making a decision that the old value is now garbage, regardless of
       what other part of the program might have been using it.

About the Haskell Weekly News

   Each week, new editions are posted to [60]the Haskell mailing list as
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   The darcs repository is available at darcs get
   [67]http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/code/hwn

  60. http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell
  61. http://sequence.complete.org/
  62. http://planet.haskell.org/
  63. http://sequence.complete.org/node/feed
  64. http://haskell.org/
  65. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/code/hwn/archives/20070109.pdf
  66. http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/HWN
  67. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/code/hwn


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