[Haskell-cafe] Haskell Weekly News

[Kim-Ee Yeoh]

*Top picks:*

   - Aditya Siram announces the first release of Haskell bindings
   <http://haskell.1045720.n5.nabble.com/Announcement-FLTKHS-Bindings-to-the-FLTK-GUI-Toolkit-tp5768690.html>
   to the C++-based FLTK cross-platform GUI library. FLTK
   <http://www.fltk.org/> can be used to build a modern
   windows-and-widgets-based desktop app and comes with a UI builder called
   FLUID.

   - The startup called Helium releases a "homegrown Webmachine-inspired
   web framework in Haskell."
   <http://blog.helium.com/helium/2015/04/01/helium-webmachine-airship.html>
   Airship is very small (just under 1000 LoC) and extremely unopinionated: it
   works with any WAI-compatible web server and any templating language
   (including none at all!). Reddit discussion.


   <http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/312pk2/haskell_webmachine_airship/>
   - Adam Chlipala releases a new Ur/Web library for producing custom
   event-planning web apps
   <http://www.impredicative.com/pipermail/ur/2015-April/001928.html>
   quickly. All you need to do is "assemble highly parametrized components."

   - Abe Voelker
   <https://blog.abevoelker.com/you-got-haskell-in-my-ruby-cleaner-ruby-validations-using-either-monad-kleisli-gem/>
   finds himself wanting algebraic data types and pattern matching when
   writing Ruby. He presents an evolution of a file upload validator,
   culminating in a finale that uses an Either monad provided by a Ruby gem
   called Kleisli.

   - Eitan Chatav shares a correct-by-construction JSON
   serializer/deserializer <http://lpaste.net/130064> using lens-json.

   - Wouldn't it be neat to get profiling info without stopping the program
   and pissing off your users? Mark Wotton
   <https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10235> has filed exactly such a
   feature request.

   - Is Call Arity optimization to blame for your 7.10 compilation
   slowdowns? Joachim Breitner
   <http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10293> investigates.

   - Ever felt Haskell on Windows is 2nd class, even though it's Tier-1
   according to the Platform? Well, installing hmatrix on Win requires
   additional steps, as Redditor wrvn
   <http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/322iut/trying_to_install_hmatrix_on_windows_7_fails/>
   kindly explains.

   - Do you program in Haskell using emacs? You must be using haskell-mode
   then. Here's monthly news
   <https://github.com/haskell/haskell-mode/wiki/Month-in-haskell-mode-March-2015>
   straight from the haskell-mode development team.

   - Dominic Steinitz
   <http://haskell.1045720.n5.nabble.com/A-Random-Strawman-tp5768239.html>
   raises awareness about the brokenness of System.Random. Solution? Use
   tf-random for now.

   - Big number exponentiation segfaults, in this reddit discussion.
   <http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/31yajd/can_you_explain_this/>
   Turns out it's a bug <https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10282>
   involving the GNU Multi-precision Library. Make sure you have the latest
   GMP version 6.

   - Devan Stormont
   <https://voyageintech.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/haskell-library-for-forecast-io/>
   creates his first hackage library that obtains weather forecast data via a
   web-based API. He writes, "The really brilliant part is in being able to
   completely replace a core piece of an app within a single day and having
   complete confidence in the result. It’s moments like this that make you
   really happy to be working with such a powerful language as Haskell."

   - Carl
   <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29455850/pretty-printing-with-free-monads-and-gadts>
   reminds us that GADT can always be pattern-matched in a case expression.
   "It's let expressions that cause GHC to provide amusing messages about its
   brain exploding."

   - Zohaib Rauf <http://zohaib.me/yet-another-what-is-a-monad-post/>
   publishes a monad tutorial. He explains that the 'M' in 'M a' is "some
   metadata wrapped around 'a'."



*Tweets of the week:*

   - John Carmack:
   <https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/585871417855516672> If I had
   to write software that my life depended on, I would seriously consider
   using Haskell.

   - shanelogsdon:
   <https://twitter.com/shanelogsdon/status/586145419639578625> tried the
   #haskell web framework http://www.spock.li/  last night with a
   meaningless micro benchmark. ~38k req/s is pretty quick

   - AlexanderKatt:
   <https://twitter.com/AlexanderKatt/status/583279982186786817> 'it is
   entirely unnecessary to understand category theory in order to understand
   monads in #haskell' said the guys who know category theory

   - justusadam_:
   <https://twitter.com/justusadam_/status/586939066748379136> I'm warming
   up to the idea of using #Haskell more. Wonderful language but the syntax
   and some of the concepts were difficult to understand

   - least_nathan:
   <https://twitter.com/least_nathan/status/581544451597709312> Algebraic
   Data Types Considered Harmful: once you use them, every language lacking
   them drives you to madness. #LangSec

   - chwthewke: <https://twitter.com/chwthewke/status/583385239138996224>
   #Haskell is a very hot programming language :) No, really, an hour of it
   and my laptop is on the verge of becoming a brown dwarf :D

   - robinbateboerop:
   <https://twitter.com/robinbateboerop/status/583396694047481857> Troll
   tries to get banned from #Haskell IRC channel, decides to learn Haskell
   <http://buff.ly/1NFKWiX> instead.

   - stephan_gfx:
   <https://twitter.com/stephan_gfx/status/583493468162400256> Cool, cabal
   will multithread installation/build if you run it with the -j option. cabal
   install -j <package_name>

   - Pythux: <https://twitter.com/Pythux/status/583535948408958976> One
   thing I learned at Haskell's meetup yesterday: it's possible to create a
   start-up with Haskell full stack! #Haskell #Awesome


*Quote of the week:*

   - Lisp, Haskell and other FP are currently killing it in the quiet world
   of DSLs, especially Mining, Oil & Gas industries which need to parse
   petaflops of seismic data and reservoir simulations, need rapid
   prototyping, need formally verified drilling platform components that field
   engineers can interact with easily, and HPC algorithms for financial
   trading. -- Source
   <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9317567#up_9318837>


-- Kim-Ee
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