[Haskell-cafe] Haskell Platform and Leksah on Windows

[David Virebayre]

Hi,

If you go the EclipseFP approach, you may have installations troubles
too. In my case, it was due to having a version of GHC and libraries
that EclipseFP doesn't like.

Once I got it to work,  I loved it.

David.


2013/8/8 Dorin Lazar <dorin.lazar at gmail.com>:
> Hi,
> I understood what's wrong about my approach - and since I want to use
> an IDE to assist me, I will try both EclipseFP and Sublime Text, to
> see how that works. My feeling was that since the leksah website
> suggested that cabal is the way to do it and since when I search for a
> Haskell IDE that is it, then it was obvious that the recommended way
> doesn't work as it should. In my mind the platform was broken, I
> understand now that it's not the platform, just this special way of
> using it.
>
> I was also in awe of the fact that nobody really says anything about
> these difficulties, and felt like an estranged child that messed
> things up badly; however, it seems that the real issue is that nobody
> really does it that way, and I was wrong to actually try it like that.
> As I said (or haven't, but will) once I will get the hang of it I will
> recount my experience for others to follow, hopefully in better terms
> than this frustrating first experience.
>
> Many thanks for everyone's advice on the list,
>   Dorin
>
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 9:48 PM, Carter Schonwald
> <carter.schonwald at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hey Dorin,
>> I don't understand your claims.
>>
>> 1) haskell has worked perfectly well on windows for quite some time. I used
>> HUGs nearly a decade ago, and in more recent time (2-3 years ago) I helped
>> teach an introductory first computer science class using GHC where many
>> students were doing great work using notepad++ and ghci.
>>
>>  I don't understand your focus on emacs and make files.
>>
>> 2)  if you want an "IDE" experience, Sublime Text with the right plugins, or
>> perhaps EclipseFP are worth checking out.
>>
>> 3) likewise, if you're finding tooling on windows unsatisfactory, help fix
>> it! Bug reports, patches, or new tools and libraries are always welcome.
>> Haskell is a relatively small community, and thusly limited manpower (we're
>> all volunteers), so way to fix any problem is help out!
>>
>> cheers
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 3:30 AM, Dorin Lazar <dorin.lazar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>  Hello,
>>>  I am the original author of the post, and I finally received the
>>> emails from the mailman (probably there was an issue with the
>>> automated requests).
>>>   My answers are inlined.
>>>
>>> > 1) Leksah should not be considered an "official haskell ide", but merely
>>> > one of
>>> > many community supported editing tools. And frankly one of the less
>>> > widely
>>> > used ones at that! Leksah is not used much at all by anyone, though
>>> > theres
>>> > probably a handful of folks who do use it.
>>> >  Many folks use editors like Sublime Tex (2/3), Emacs, Vi(m), textmate,
>>> > and
>>> > many more.  Its worth noting that the sublime-haskell plugin for sublime
>>> > text, and analogous packages for many other editors, provide haskell
>>> > IDE-like powers, or at least a nice subset thereof.
>>>   Unfortunately, I think the problem with this is that we have a
>>> different vision on how development should be done. I have extensive
>>> experience of working from console, with a simple text editor and
>>> hand-made Makefiles or anything similar. However, an IDE should be a
>>> productivity tool, that can help you improve your understanding of the
>>> language, and can assist you in following the proper syntax for a new
>>> language. While learning by doing 'write, save, compile, examine error
>>> message' is ok with me, it is slow, and it limits the time I can
>>> dedicate to learning the language itself. A better cycle is the
>>> current 'write, examine error message' of most IDEs, since it's faster
>>> and requires no context switch. Sure, editors can help there. IDEs do
>>> this by default.
>>>   So it's normal of me to search for an IDE to better learn the
>>> language, I'll leave the emacs + console version for when I am
>>> productive in the language.
>>>
>>> > 2) There are people working on building better easily portable native
>>> > gui
>>> > toolkits, but in many respects, a nice haskelly gui toolkit is still
>>> > something people are experimetning with how to do well. theres lots of
>>> > great
>>> > tools out as of the past year or two, many more in progress on various
>>> > time
>>> > scales, and gtk2hs is great for linux (and thats fine).
>>>   Unfortunately, this is not what's advertised. In fact, on the leksah
>>> site, the recommended method is to have the IDE installed via cabal.
>>> In another mail Mihai calls me unreasonable, but I think it's
>>> reasonable to think that the recommended method should be the one that
>>> works.
>>>   But the easy to tell truth is that the Haskell Platform for Windows
>>> is not mature enough yet. That is something I can understand, and I
>>> can recommend other beginners to install a Linux VM for Haskell. That
>>> is perfectly fine, zero cost, 100% gain. However, the mistakes from
>>> the Haskell Platform as it is now on Windows should be pointed out,
>>> and although I've been called a mystical animal that wants only free
>>> support, I think what I had in that blog post was actually a bug
>>> report for the people that can actually add 1+1 to make 2 when it
>>> comes to the Haskell Platform for Windows. Surely, I was harsh. But
>>> that's the first experience of a beginner with Haskell, and I chose to
>>> contribute my experience to people more knowledgeable instead of
>>> shutting up and hiding the dust under the rug.
>>>
>>>   Many thanks,
>>>      Dorin
>>
>>
>
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