A prototype explorer for Haskell

[Paul Hudak]

>         Check
>         http://www.numeric-quest.com/haskell/explorer/explorer.html
>         and tell me what you think about it.
> 
>         The tool uses :browse command of Hugs. There is always
>         a choice for this kind of work:
> 
>         + Parse the source modules.
>           Pro: Tools are portable to other environments.
>           Contra: source code is not type checked and might be buggy.
> 
>         + Be lazy and tap to work of others, such as Hugs.
>           Pro: Modules are typed checked.
>           Contra: tools are not portable.

Good work Jan.  I have two comments/questions:

1) Why can't we do this sort of thing in a Haskell GUI tool such as
FranTk?  What is missing that would make it as easy as in Squeak?

2) Why can't we as a community create "front-end" tools such as this
that can be used with several compiler back-ends?  I must admit I was
disappointed when the grand "Hugs/GHC merger" was abandoned (I'm not
criticizing the decision, just expressing my disappointment).  In fact,
whatever happened to the effort to add Haskell to one of languages
supported by Microsoft's Visual IDE?

-Paul