[Haskell-cafe] Haskell.org GSoC

[Sterling Clover]

Something that hit me tonight: Last GSoC gave us GHC compiler  
plugins. We have examples, but no documented significant uses,  
suitable for production code. Plugins, in essence, as I understand  
them, let us extend the type system in useful ways. Haskell has  
libraries for units[1], but no lightweight (i.e. without simulated  
dependent types or a dsl) way to embed units in Haskell calculations.  
Units in a functional language are possible, and implemented in,  
e.g., F# [2]

The punchline: With GHC plugins, it should be possible, and  
reasonable, to add a proper unit system for Haskell.

Given a suitable SoC candidate, I'd love to see this, and if it  
worked reasonably enough, I'm sure that I would use it.

Cheers,
Sterl.

[1] http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/ 
dimensional, http://liftm.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/ 
scientificdimension-type-arithmetic-and-physical-units-in-haskell/,
http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/caldims
[2] http://blogs.msdn.com/andrewkennedy/archive/2008/09/04/units-of- 
measure-in-f-part-three-generic-units.aspx