SURVEY - Haskell editing

[C.Reinke]

As some of you know, our refactoring project here at UKC has just
started (at long last). Of course, it will take some time before
this leads to concrete artifacts in terms of detailed refactoring
catalogues and prototype tools, but we would like to know a bit more
about the environment into which any such refactoring tools would
have to fit. After all, you might have different development habits
and tools than we do;-)

So it would be great if you could spare a few minutes to fill in 
the following survey and send it back to <refactor-fp@ukc.ac.uk>
(reply-to should be set?). We'll summarize to this list.

We will try to keep you involved in later stages of the project as
well, e.g., to ask for input on what refactorings you'd find most
useful, but if you'd like to share your thoughts on this earlier,
feel free to email us.

Thanks for your input,
Claus

"Refactoring Functional Programs"
http://www.cs.ukc.ac.uk/research/groups/tcs/fp/Refactor/


----------July 2002---------------------- SURVEY - Haskell editing

1. When developing Haskell programs,

- which OS-platforms do you work on?

- which Haskell implementations are you using (please indicate rough
  version info: "whatever", "latest source release", "latest binary
  release", "latest CVS", "latest stable version", ..)?

    Hugs98
    GHC
    nhc98
    ..

- to what extent do you use (which?) features outside Haskell 98?

    class/instance-restrictions
    existential types
    arrow notation
    ..

- what editors, IDEs or source-manipulation tools are you using?

  - editors
      Vim
      Emacs
      ..

  - tag-file generators
      HaskTags
      ..

  - documentation generators
      Haddock
      ..

  - pre-processors
      DrIFT
      cpp
      ..

  - revision control
      manual
      CVS
      bitkeeper
      ..

  - ..

2. To what extent are your editors/IDEs Haskell-aware?

- what Haskell-specific functionality do they offer?

    syntax highlighting
    pretty-printing
    tag-files permitting jump-to-definition
    syntax-aware movements (to next definition/expression/..)
    ..

- what non-Haskell-specific editing functionality do you find most
  helpful when developing Haskell programs?

    matching of parentheses
    macro recording and playback (what do you use these for?)
    integration with external tools (which ones?)
    ..

- what Haskell-specific editing functionality do you you miss most?
    
    ..
  
- what interface options does your editor/IDE offer for integration
  of external tools (brief explanations or pointers to detailed
  documentations would be great)?

    coarse-grained (piping text through formatters, spell-checkers; 
      preparation of tag files, ..)
    fine-grained (bi-directional access, i.e., editor can use
      external functionality, and external tools can use editor
      functionality)
    scripting (to weave it all together)