[Haskell-cafe] Haskell Weekly News: Issue 161 - December 08, 2010

[Daniel Santa Cruz]

   Welcome to issue 161 of the HWN, a newsletter covering developments in
   the [1]Haskell community in the week of November 28 - December 04.

   Jan Snajder [2]announced the release of genprog, a genetic programming
   library.

   Ian Lynagh informed us that the haskell.org server migration is now
   complete. There might still be some issues lying around, if you happen
   to spot one, please let the admins know.

   The biggest announcement this week came from Galois, Inc. on the
   [3]immediate release of the Haskell Lightweight Virtual Machine. "The
   HaLVM is a port of the GHC runtime system to the Xen hypervisor,
   allowing programmers to create Haskell programs that run directly on
   Xen's "bare metal.""

   Isabelle Perseil informed us that there is an [4]extension to the
   submission deadline for papers for International Conference on the
   Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS) until December 15th.

   Gregory D. Weber [5]informed us of an update to his Sifflet tool, and
   sifflet-lib. "Sifflet is a visual, functional programming language and
   support system for students learning about recursion."

   This week we had 48 new StackOverflow questions, and 33 new Reddit
   stories. Hackage saw 108 uploads/updates from 59 distinct contributors.
   Most active uploaders to hackage were Michael Snoyman (16 uploads) and
   Andy Stewart (13 uploads).

   Big note of thanks to Janis Voigtländer and to Benjamin L. Russell for
   sending in bits for this newsletter.

   So, what went on this week?

Top Reddit Stories

   * Galois releases the Haskell Lightweight Virtual Machine (HaLVM)
     Domain: galois.com, Score: 105, Comments: 26
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ee4ve/galois_releases_the_haskell_lightweight_virtual/
     Original: http://www.galois.com/blog/2010/11/30/galois-releases-the-haskell-lightweight-virtual-machine-halvm/

   * Steve Yegge: Haskell Researchers Announce Discovery of Industry
Programmer Who Gives a @#!&
     Domain: steve-yegge.blogspot.com, Score: 54, Comments: 42
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/eeqw9/steve_yegge_haskell_researchers_announce/
     Original: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2010/12/haskell-researchers-announce-discovery.html

   * Fun with monad comprehensions
     Domain: blog.n-sch.de, Score: 35, Comments: 9
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ecu0w/fun_with_monad_comprehensions/
     Original: http://blog.n-sch.de/2010/11/27/fun-with-monad-comprehensions/

   * The Arrow Calculus
     Domain: wadler.blogspot.com, Score: 34, Comments: 2
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ee0ux/the_arrow_calculus/
     Original: http://wadler.blogspot.com/2010/11/arrow-calculus.html

   * My strings can beat up your string
     Domain: finger-tree.blogspot.com, Score: 32, Comments: 13
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/eecw2/my_strings_can_beat_up_your_string/
     Original: http://finger-tree.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-strings-can-beat-up-your-strings.html

   * Haskell Package Layout: a proposal
     Domain: mtnviewmark.wordpress.com, Score: 27, Comments: 8
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/efhde/haskell_package_layout_a_proposal/
     Original: http://mtnviewmark.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/haskell-package-layout/

   * Real World Haskell ebook today: 60% off. Use code DDF2H
     Domain: oreil.ly, Score: 25, Comments: 16
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/edexw/real_world_haskell_ebook_today_60_off_use_code/
     Original: http://oreil.ly/free2choose

   * Comprehensive Monad Notation
     Domain: zenzike.com, Score: 23, Comments:
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ef5rf/comprehensive_monad_notation/
     Original: http://zenzike.com/posts/2010-12-02-comprehensive-monad-notation/

   * Google AI Challenge: Languages Used by the Best Programmers
     Domain: r-bloggers.com, Score: 23, Comments: 13
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/efrfv/google_ai_challenge_languages_used_by_the_best/
     Original: http://www.r-bloggers.com/google-ai-challenge-languages-used-by-the-best-programmers/

   * A small matter of illegal characters
     Domain: serpentine.com, Score: 22, Comments: 2
     On Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/edkhz/a_small_matter_of_illegal_characters/
     Original: http://www.serpentine.com/blog/2010/11/29/a-small-matter-of-illegal-characters/

Top StackOverflow Questions

   * Whats really more performant? Haskell or OCaml
     votes: 12, answers: 4
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4308137/whats-really-more-performant-haskell-or-ocaml

   * Problems on migrating from functional to OO
     votes: 10, answers: 5
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4348788/problems-on-migrating-from-functional-to-oo

   * Getting a list of all possible data type values in Haskell
     votes: 8, answers: 3
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4299319/getting-a-list-of-all-possible-data-type-values-in-haskell

   * Haskell: Want a better way of doing:  value == x || value == y || …
     votes: 6, answers: 1
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4294652/haskell-want-a-better-way-of-doing-value-x-value-y

   * Is/Should wrapping functions into a monad transformer be
considered bad practice?
     votes: 6, answers: 3
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4317101/is-should-wrapping-functions-into-a-monad-transformer-be-considered-bad-practice

   * Trick for “reusing” arguments in Haskell?
     votes: 5, answers: 2
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4333864/trick-for-reusing-arguments-in-haskell

   * How to write common “if” branching in Haskell
     votes: 4, answers: 5
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4296887/how-to-write-common-if-branching-in-haskell

   * Comparing functions in Haskell
     votes: 4, answers: 4
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4328620/comparing-functions-in-haskell

   * Encapsulating a list of functions in haskell in a single one
     votes: 4, answers: 2
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4343951/encapsulating-a-list-of-functions-in-haskell-in-a-single-one

   * Can I have a value constructor named “/”"?
     votes: 4, answers: 3
     Read on SO:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4348605/can-i-have-a-value-constructor-named

Quotes from the Week

     * camccann: A humor monad? So basically that's a model where jokes
       about something are equivalent to jokes about jokes about
       something. In other words, meta-humor in-jokes.
     * djahandarie: I'm like a massively parallel but slow clocked
       processor
     * wlangstroth: It's disgusting hom much talent there is at galois

About the Haskell Weekly News

   New editions are posted to [6]the Haskell mailing list as well as to
   [7]the Haskell Sequence and [8]Planet Haskell. [9]RSS is also
   available, and headlines appear on [10]haskell.org.

   To help create new editions of this newsletter, please send stories to
   dstcruz * at * gmail * dot * com. The code used to produce this version
   of the newsletter is not yet publicly available, as it is a complete
   hack designed to get things started again.

   Until next time,
   Daniel Santa Cruz

References

   1. http://haskell.org/
   2. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/18322
   3. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/18328
   4. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/18339
   5. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/18344
   6. http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell
   7. http://sequence.complete.org/
   8. http://planet.haskell.org/
   9. http://sequence.complete.org/node/feed
  10. http://haskell.org/