[Haskell-cafe] Haskell Web Framework

[Michaeljohn Clement]

John A. De Goes wrote:
> The best approach is to push as much functionality into the client as
> possible. The ideal server-side framework consists of nothing more
> than a permissions-based interface to persistence and network services.
> That's it. Everything else is done on the client side, in JavaScript.

+1

This is the conclusion I have come to in building collaborative 
Web applications.

I agree that there seems to be a gap here in the Haskell Web 
frameworks people are building.

> What this means is that effort is probably best directed at
> Yhc/JavaScript and similar projects, which compile Haskell to
> JavaScript for execution on the client.

I do not believe compiling Haskell to ECMAScript/JavaScript is a 
productive avenue.  There is too much pain in trying to abstract 
away the JavaScript model only to write everything in Haskell and 
end up with worse performance as a reward.

There is very little wrong with ECMAScript if people would only 
learn it properly and play to its strengths instead of trying to 
turn it into things it is not.

Treating ECMAScript as a compiler target language will be a win 
eventually, I expect, but not by compiling from Haskell.  Haskell 
could certainly play a role, e.g. as an implementation language 
for ES-to-ES or DSL-to-ES compiler writers.

Michael Snoyman wrote:
> That's great in theory, but then you end of with inaccessible web
> sites, 

This doesn't have to be true.  You can do quite well today if 
you are careful, and ARIA will resolve the remaining issues.

> those without Javascript are left out in the cold,

Yes.  JavaScript is a requirement for the full functionality of 
the modern Web.

> and search engines won't index you.

This also isn't true if it's done right.  It's almost always 
done wrong, but that's just ignorance and incompetence, not 
any inherent limitations of the technology.

Follow correct principles of Web architecture and you can 
do fine with search engines, even if you rely on JavaScript 
to provide a UI.


-- 
Michaeljohn Clement