[Haskell-cafe] Summer of Code idea: Haskell Web Toolkit

[JP Moresmau]

Maybe I'll sound like an overused meme, but what about JQuery? JQuery
already takes a combinator-like approach to Javascript and DOM
manipulations, so maybe we could have a combinator library that would
mimic the JQuery library. We'd obviously need some extra combinators
for the required parts of Javascript and HTML generation that are not
done via JQuery.

JP

On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 11:10 PM, Alejandro Serrano Mena
<trupill at gmail.com> wrote:
> My idea would be reusing some of the already-available tools for compiling
> Haskell to JS (for example, UHC), and develop with any of them a complete
> library for client-side scripting; rather that redevelop a way to compile
> Haskell to JS.
>
> I think it's really a pity not being able to use things like what Yesod
> provides in a client-side context. And both sides would benefit: they can
> share common code for datatypes (as it's done in Google Web Toolkit), and
> autogenerate some code for sending or receiving AJAX requests, for example.
>
>
> 2012/3/6 Michael Snoyman <michael at snoyman.com>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 11:40 PM, Alejandro Serrano Mena
>> <trupill at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> > I'm really looking forward to helping in the Summer of Code, if Haskell
>> > goes
>> > into it this year (something I take for granted :). I would like to
>> > propose
>> > an idea for a project, and I'm looking for suggestions about whether
>> > it's
>> > good, should be improved or it's just unfeasible.
>> >
>> > My idea is to make a client-side Haskell Web Toolkit, in the spirit of
>> > Google Web Toolkit, which would allow to program in Haskell the client
>> > part
>> > of a web application, and would complement the web frameworks already
>> > existing for Haskell (such as Yesod and Snap). The point is coming about
>> > with a Haskell-ish way to program applications, to reuse all the
>> > existing
>> > knowledge for our beloved language.
>> >
>> > I've added more details in a pre-proposal in Google Docs, available
>> >
>> > in https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FnTNO9uTobDHRTDXWurKns7vGTjeauw0nRhbtt6vavs/edit
>> > Tell me if you prefer to see it in other format, but I didn't want to
>> > generate a bigger e-mail.
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance.
>>
>> I definitely think the idea has merit. In general I'm wary of
>> solutions which try to compile down to Javascript[1], and I'm not sure
>> if actually providing a full Haskell-to-JS approach is a good idea.
>> Another possibility might be a DSL/combinator library for generating
>> JS. Though at this point, I wouldn't rule out either approach.
>>
>> Yesod is currently wrapping up its 1.0 release (almost certainly
>> out-the-door by the end of April), and after that our main focus is
>> intended to be client-side integration, so we would certainly be happy
>> to discuss design ideas and collaborate in general.
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> [1] I say "compile down to" to mean nontrivial changes, as opposed to
>> something like Coffeescript, which is a fairly simple conversion.
>
>
>
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-- 
JP Moresmau
http://jpmoresmau.blogspot.com/