[Haskell] Haskell Weekly News: April 12, 2007
Donald Bruce Stewart
dons at cse.unsw.edu.au
Wed Apr 11 23:21:59 EDT 2007
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Haskell Weekly News
http://sequence.complete.org/hwn/20070412
Issue 60 - April 12, 2007
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Welcome to issue 60 of HWN, a weekly newsletter covering developments
in the [1]Haskell community.
With the ICFP deadline passed, your Haskell Weekly News returns to its
regularly scheduled programming. This week: a truckload of new
libraries!
1. http://haskell.org/
Announcements
ndp-0.1: nested data parallelism in Haskell. Roman Leshchinskiy
[2]announced the first release of [3]the NDP package, a library for
writing nested data-parallel programs in Haskell, on shared-memory
multiprocessors. The NDP library is part of the Data Parallel Haskell
project. The paper [4]Data Parallel Haskell: a status report describes
the underlying design and go through an example program.
2. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15006
3. http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/GHC/Data_Parallel_Haskell
4. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/papers/CLPKM07.html
binary 0.3: bigger, better, faster. Lennart Kolmodin [5]announced
binary 0.3. The 'binary' package provides efficient serialization of
Haskell values to and from lazy ByteStrings. ByteStrings constructed
this way may then be written to disk, written to the network, or
further processed (e.g. stored in memory directly, or compressed in
memory with zlib or bzlib). It's available [6]through Hackage, or via
its [7]homepage.
5. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15044
6. http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/binary/binary-0.3.tar.gz
7. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/binary.html
Text.HTML.Chunks. Matthew Sackman [8]announced the [9]Text.HTML.Chunks
library, a clone with improvements of the Perl HTML::Chunks module.
The main achievement is the use of template-haskell to combine the
template into the code at compile time. This then allows for static
checking that the variables/fields that the templates are expecting
are indeed being provided and that the templates the code is trying to
use do indeed exist. The template is then incorporated within the
code, removing the dependency on the template.
8. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15028
9. http://www.wellquite.org/chunks
Phooey 1.0 and GuiTV 0.3. Conal Elliott [10]announced a new version of
Phooey, a library for functional user interfaces. Highlights in this
release: uses new TypeCompose package, which includes a simple
implementation of data-driven computation; new Applicative functor
interface; eliminated the catch-all Phooey.hs module. Now import any
one of Graphics.UI.Phooey.{Monad ,Applicative,Arrow}; Phooey.Monad has
two different styles of output widgets, made by owidget and owidget'
and more. Phooey is also used in GuiTV, a library for composable
interfaces and 'tangible values'.
10. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15047
The real Monad Transformer. Henning Thielemann [11]announced the real
monad transformer! It has been argued that people avoid Haskell
because of terms from Category theory like 'Monad'. This problem can
now be solved by a wrapper which presents all the internet entirely
without monads! Start [12]the parallel Haskell wiki. Of course the
tool is written in Haskell, that is, Haskell helps solving problems
which only exist because of Haskell. Bug reports and feature requests
can be tracked at [13]here.
11. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15059
12. http://tinyurl.com/2e32r4
13. https://sourceforge.net/projects/parallelweb
GHC 6.6.1 Release Candidate. Ian Lynagh [14]announced the Release
Candidate phase for GHC 6.6.1. Snapshots beginning with 6.6.20070409
are release candidates for 6.6.1. You can download snapshots from
[15]here.
14. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.glasgow.user/11964
15. http://www.haskell.org/ghc/dist/stable/dist/
Haskell Cryptographic Library 4.0.3. Dominic Steinitz [16]announced
the release of a new version of the Haskell Cryptographic Library
based on the [17]crypto proposal. See [18]the crypto home for more
details. There is now no dependency on NewBinary. The downside is the
library contains no support for ASN.1 which will be released in
separate package.
16. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/6761
17. http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Crypto_Library_Proposal
18. http://www.haskell.org/crypto/
TagSoup library 0.1. Neil Mitchell [19]announced TagSoup, a library
for extracting information out of unstructured HTML code, sometimes
known as [20]tag-soup. The HTML does not have to be well formed, or
render properly within any particular framework. This library is for
situations where the author of the HTML is not cooperating with the
person trying to extract the information, but is also not trying to
hide the information. The library provides a basic data type for a
list of unstructured tags, a parser to convert HTML into this tag
type, and useful functions and combinators for finding and extracting
information.
19. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15100
20. http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~ndm/tagsoup/
ParseP library 0.1. Twan van Laarhoven [21]announced a
generalized/improved variant of the ReadP parser library. Unlike ReadP
ParseP can handle any type of token, and actually generates error
messages in case something goes wrong. It is also possible to use
things other then a list as an input stream, for example ByteStrings.
21. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15101
Debian library for Haskell. Jeremy Shaw [22]announced the availability
of a library for interacting with the Debian system from Haskell. This
library does not (currently) depend on dpkg or apt for any
functionality. Contributions are welcome, and the library is available
from [23]Hackage. Well-Support Modules: parsing/Printing Debian
control files, parsing/printing sources.list files, comparing Debian
version numbers, a data type for encoding Debian relations and more.
22. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15064
23. http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/debian-1.2
Call for Contributions: HC and A Report. Andres Loeh [24]mentioned
that it is nearly time for the twelfth edition of the [25]Haskell
Communities and Activities Report. If you are working on any project
that is in some way related to Haskell, write a short entry and submit
it. Even if the project is very small or unfinished or you think it is
not important enough -- please reconsider and submit an entry anyway!
24. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15096
25. http://www.haskell.org/communities/
System.FilePath 1.0. Neil Mitchell [26]announced the
[27]System.FilePath 1.0 release! The FilePath library is a library for
manipulating FilePaths in a cross platform way on both Windows and
Unix. [28]Documentation.
26. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15097
27. http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~ndm/filepath/
28. http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/fp/haddock/filepath/
FGL - A Functional Graph Library. Martin Erwig [29]announced a new
release of [30]the Functional Graph Library for Haskell. This release
fixes some bugs in the implementation of several basic inspection
functions.
29. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15052
30. http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/~erwig/fgl/haskell/
TypeCompose 0.0. Conal Elliott [31]announced TypeCompose, which
provides some classes and instances for forms of type composition. It
also includes a very simple implementation of data-driven computation.
31. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15046
Haskell SWF generation library. Jeremy Shaw [32]announced the
availability of an Adobe Shockwave Flash (SWF) [33]library for
Haskell. It is primarily useful for compiling ActionScript assembly
into a .swf file.
32. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15095
33. http://www.n-heptane.com/nhlab/repos/haskell-swf/
New web-devel mailinglist for Haskell. Marc Weber [34]announced a new
web-devel mailinglist on haskell.org has been set up. You can
subscribe [35]here.
34. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15045
35. http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/web-devel
strict-0.1: strict versions of Haskell types. Roman Leshchinskiy
[36]announced the first release of [37]package 'strict' which provides
strict versions of standard Haskell types. At the moment, pairs, Maybe
and Either are defined. The library is available [38]from hackage.
36. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15017
37. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~rl/code/strict.html
38. http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/strict-0.1
Chess in Haskell. Steffen Mazanek [39]announced a straightforward
implementation of [40]a chess engine in Haskell, available as a
tutorial exercise.
39. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15002
40. http://www.steffen-mazanek.de/blog/2007/02/haskell-chess.html
storylen: story word count and categorization. Dino Morelli
[41]announced storylen, a [42]command-line utility that counts the
words in files and classifies them into story types (short story,
novella, novel...). Its operation and output are very similar to the
*nix program wc. This is useful for books in plain ascii text.
41. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15083
42. http://ui3.info/d/proj/storylen.html
Haskell'
This section covers the [43]Haskell' standardisation process.
* [44]Type aliases and Id
* [45]Strict bits of datatypes
* [46]Literate Haskell specification
43. http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/haskell-prime
44. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/2152
45. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/2139
46. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/2177
Libraries
This week's proposals and extensions to the [47]standard libraries.
* [48]Reduce base from the top
* [49]Make Data.Graph.Inductive.NodeMap handle slightly messy input
* [50]ByteString based datagram communication
47. http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Library_submissions
48. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/6716
49. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/6727
50. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/6559
Discussion
Haskell in the real world: building a commercial website in Haskell
with WASH. Adam Peacock [51]described how he implemented a commercial
website in Haskell, using WASH
51. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/21159
Haskell communities worthy of academic study?. Claus Reinke
[52]wondered about the software archeology of Haskell.
52. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15048
Type level programming to eliminate array bound checking in the real
world. Vivian McPhail [53]mentioned an attempt to write code that will
receive an array from C land and convert it to a type safe
representation.
53. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/21314
Conference roundup
Commercial Users of Functional Programming. Simon Peyton-Jones
[54]announced the call for speakers for this year's [55]CUFP. If you
use functional programming as a means, rather than as an end, this
message is an invitation for you to offer to give a talk at the
workshop.
54. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14989
55. http://cufp.galois.com/
Jobs
One-year INRIA post-doctoral position. Frederic Blanqui [56]announced
a one-year INRIA post-doctoral position is available investigating
'Generation of construction functions guaranteeing algebraic
invariants on concrete data types'
56. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/15018
Blog noise
[57]Haskell news from the blogosphere.
* [58]What Programming Languages Should You Know?
* [59]Monads in 15 minutes: Backtracking and Maybe
* [60]Time to learn a little Haskell...
* [61]Say what you mean, mean what you say
* [62]Fundamental Ideas of Computing
* [63]On Code Generation
* [64]Monads in the unix shell
* [65]Haskell Eye for the Ruby Guy
* [66]2D Mouse Picking with OpenGL and GLUT
* [67]Implementing chess in Haskell
* [68]Port Scanner in Haskell
* [69]Command line arguments in Haskell
* [70]IFS In Haskell
* [71]Spider Solitaire, Intro
* [72]Learning Haskell...
* [73]Quick and Dirty Theorem Prover.
* [74]Software Transactional Memory for concurrency
* [75]Haskell thoughts.
* [76]What Haskell teaches us about writing Enterprise-scale software
* [77]Unit testing in Haskell
* [78]The imaginary concurrency debate: Erlang versus Haskell
* [79]On Haskell: Writing a black-list filter using the Writer Monad
* [80]A simple file filter
* [81]Haskell: an Imperative Language with Mutable State
* [82]Pattern matching in Haskell and Ruby
* [83]Haskell for C# Programmers
57. http://planet.haskell.org/
58. http://tinyurl.com/2aczfr
59. http://www.randomhacks.net/articles/2007/03/12/monads-in-15-minutes
60. http://edge-loop.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!8F028CC27525BEA1!1175.entry
61. http://notes-on-haskell.blogspot.com/2007/03/say-what-you-mean-mean-what-you-say.html
62. http://notes-on-haskell.blogspot.com/2007/03/fundamental-ideas-of-computing.html
63. http://blog.twifkak.com/articles/2007/03/12/on-code-generation
64. http://freeshells.ch/~revence/monads.html
65. http://antoniocangiano.com/articles/2007/03/13/haskell-eye-for-the-ruby-guy
66. http://mad-computer-scientist.com/blog/?p=14
67. http://www.steffen-mazanek.de/blog/2007/02/haskell-chess.html
68. http://tinyurl.com/2fs39r
69. http://leiffrenzel.de/papers/commandline-options-in-haskell.html
70. http://www.alpheccar.org/en/posts/show/69
71. http://partiallyappliedlife.blogspot.com/2007/03/spider-solitaire-intro.html
72. http://a-w-j.blogspot.com/2007/03/learning-haskell.html
73. http://vandreev.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/quick-and-dirty-theorem-prover/
74. http://mikeburrell.wordpress.com/2007/03/20/software-transactional-memory-for-concurrency/
75. http://saladwithsteve.com/2007/04/haskell-thoughts.html
76. http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/04/haskell-not-just-for-language-weenies.html
77. http://cohatoe.blogspot.com/2007/04/unit-testing-in-haskell.html
78. http://toomuchcode.blogspot.com/2007/04/imaginary-concurrency-debate.html
79. http://austin.youareinferior.net/?q=node/22
80. http://praisecurseandrecurse.blogspot.com/2007/04/haskell-for-short-attention-span-simple.html
81. http://neilbartlett.name/blog/2007/04/11/haskell-an-imperative-language-with-mutable-state/
82. http://etorreborre.blogspot.com/2007/04/pattern-matching-with-ruby.html
83. http://themechanicalbride.blogspot.com/2007/04/haskell-for-c-3-programmers.html
Quotes of the Week
* AdamPeacock: Once I looked at the source code, 25000 lines of ASP,
I reckoned it would be easier to rewrite it in a real language.
* JesseVincent: Perl's idea of a type system is: 'La-La-La, I don't
hear you'
* LPhas: [In reference to HAppS.SimpleHTTP] When I first saw the
type of 'h' my reaction was to hide under my bed
* SvenPanne: Taking away the prelude is a little bit like taking
away 'int', 'double', 'for' and 'while' from a C programmer
* sjanssen: Threads are fine, its your language that sucks.
* thorat: C should only be used to implement something better
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