[Haskell-cafe] Binary serialization, was Re: Abstraction leak

[Dave Bayer]

On Jul 5, 2007, at 8:00 AM, Paul Moore wrote:

> It probably depends on your perspective. I've found lots of tasks that
> would be a simple library call in Python, but which require me to
> write the code myself in Haskell. Examples:
>
> * Calculate the MD5 checksum of a file

How's this, only one line is specific to your problem:

> import System.Process
> import IO
>
> doShell :: String -> IO String
> doShell cmd = do
>     (_,out,_,_) <- runInteractiveCommand cmd
>     hGetContents out
>
> main :: IO ()
> main = do
>     md5 <- doShell "md5 -q md5.hs"
>     putStrLn md5

It's not like you'll be kicked out of the tree house for leaving the  
Haskell world to get things done. For example, ghostscript and pdf2ps  
are well-supported open source tools for converting PS to PDF, that  
can be called from most languages. What's the deal with everyone  
rewriting PDF handling in their pet language, when it's so much  
easier to generate Postscript? I'd call that Balkanization; if I were  
managing a software group, I'd never let that happen.

The true problem isn't adequate libraries in each language, it's  
interoperability so great open-source tools can get written once and  
then be supported by a cast of thousands.

There are people who claim with a straight face that they migrated to  
OS X primarily to use TextMate

	http://www.textmate.com

which is a GUI editor getting Emacs-like buzz, making Emacs seem by  
comparison like your grandfather's razor. It's as much a text-based  
operating system as an editor, and the whole thing is glued together  
with hundreds of snippets of code one can hack, written in every  
scripting language imaginable. Polyglots feel right at home...