[Haskell-cafe] [ANN] Laborantin: experimentation framework

[lucas di cioccio]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the pointers.

It is interesting to see that Braincurry and Laborantin have similar
designs although we come from very different application domains. You've
picked paths that I was not sure to explore (e.g., have experiment
parameters be a parameterizable datatype rather than a value in a
pre-defined datatype).
I didn't think about enabling algebraic composition of "experiments". It
looks like I can incorporate this idea in Laborantin too as a way to
"combine" setup/run/teardown hooks. I'll definitely have a second look at
Braincurry but first I'll have to read the 2nd paper.

One thing I really would like to support is a way to "inject experiments"
into another system and run experiments "live". For instance, A/B testing
web pages in a Warp application.

BayesHive looks very nice! congrats.

Enjoy a nice year 2014 and best wishes,
--Lucas


2013/12/30 Tom Nielsen <tanielsen at gmail.com>

> Hi Lucas,
>
> In connection with your work on Laborantin, you may be interested in our
> papers:
>
> Braincurry: A domain-specific language for integrative neuroscience
>
> http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/biology/research/neuroscience/matheson-neurobiology/publications/braincurry
>
> A formal mathematical framework for physiological observations,
> experiments and analyses.
> http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/9/70/1040.long
>
> I found it difficult to excite experimental biologists about the benefit
> of adopting experiment description languages. I am now concentrating on a
> functional language for statistical data analysis - see
> https://bayeshive.com
>
> Tom
>
>
> On 23 December 2013 09:27, lucas di cioccio <lucas.dicioccio at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I am happy to announce Laborantin. Laborantin is a Haskell library and
>> DSL for
>> running and analyzing controlled experiments.
>>
>> Repository: https://github.com/lucasdicioccio/laborantin-hs
>> Hackage page: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/laborantin-hs
>>
>> Laborantin's opinion is that running proper experiments is a non-trivial
>> and
>> often overlooked problem. Therefore, we should provide good tools to
>> assist
>> experimenters. The hope is that, with Laborantin, experimenters will
>> spend more
>> time on their core problem while racing through the menial tasks of
>> editing
>> scripts because one data point is missing in a plot. At the same time,
>> Laborantin is also an effort within the broad open-science movement.
>> Indeed,
>> Laborantin's DSL separates boilerplate from the actual experiment
>> implementation. Thus, Laborantin could reduce the friction for code and
>> data-reuse.
>>
>> One family of experiments that fit well Laborantin are benchmarks with
>> tedious
>> setup and teardown procedures (for instance starting, configuring, and
>> stopping
>> remote machines). Analyses that require measurements from a variety of
>> data
>> points in a multi-dimensional parameter space also fall in the scope of
>> Laborantin.
>>
>> When using Laborantin, the experimenter:
>>
>> * Can express experimental scenarios using a readable and familiar DSL.
>>   This feature, albeit subjective, was confirmed by non-Haskeller
>> colleagues.
>> * Saves time on boilerplate such as writing command-line parsers or
>>   encoding dependencies between experiments and analysis results in a
>> Makefile.
>> * Benefits from auto-documentation and result introspection features when
>> one
>>   comes back to a project, possibly months or weeks later.
>> * Harnesses the power of Haskell type-system to catch common errors at
>> compile time
>>
>> If you had to read one story to understand the pain points that Laborantin
>> tries to address, it should be Section 5 of "Strategies for Sound Internet
>> Measurement" (V. Paxson, IMC 2004).
>>
>> I'd be glad to take question and comments (or, even better, code reviews
>> and
>> pull requests).
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> --Lucas DiCioccio (@lucasdicioccio on GitHub/Twitter)
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Haskell-Cafe at haskell.org
>> http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
>>
>>
>
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