FFI and ODBC connectivity

Jamie Love jlove@eservglobal.co.nz
Thu, 6 Jun 2002 01:50:42 +1200


Ketil Z. Malde, you wrote:
> 
> You have of course looked at http://haskell.org/?  While development

Certainly. The links on the pages are very useful, comprehensive and
I would not be as far along without them. As you mention below however,
the development of these libraries is ever changing, and from their
web pages it is very difficult it get a good idea if what is currently
being developed, what has been left for something better etc. 

As an example, I read that greencard is the basis for haskell-direct,
but I also read haskell-direct seems dead, while it would seem that
greencard is still active, yet if libraries were using it as a basis,
isn't it supersceeded?

These are the sort of questions I cannot answer just from the web
pages, or even downloading the software, so I ask here.

This isn't any kind of rant, I am simply a little confused as to what I
should use.

> of libraries has to be rather fluid and dynamic, I think it would be a
> good idea for the web pages trying to keep track of packages seeing
> active use and development, and in particular marking packages that
> are useful but orphaned, or superceded by other packages.  Some kind
> of status field, perhaps?
> 
> Something for the communities report?

Maybe also information on what the libraries actually allow one to do from
a less academic perspective than what currently exists. For example, 
there are a number of pretty printing libraries, but which one to use?
The database drivers are actually quite good to decide between, but I
suppose that is because each does a very separate job.

I very much enjoy haskell, and love what one can do in such an elegant
fashion. I recall a number of discussions previously on the subject of
building the up the profile of haskell, along with making it more
accessable to the general development community. It is certainly become
much more useable for real projects with the html/cgi libs, FFI, database
connectivity etc, and I wish to see this grow. The project I currently
am toying with is certainly not trivial, and would prove to me at the
very least that haskell can be used by the wider communtiy with
confidence.

-- 
Jamie Love
Phone: +64 4 9393425

	"I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for
	 the plays of W. Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected
	 works of Francis Bacon."
	  - Bill Hirst