[Haskell] ANNOUNCE: Harpy -- run-time code generation library

[Deborah Goldsmith]

On Jun 12, 2007, at 1:52 AM, Martin Grabmueller wrote:

> LLVM is indeed interesting, but has several drawbacks:
>
> - written in C++ (we don't have experience in interfacing Haskell  
> and C++)

You'd have to write a C wrapper, or generate the LLVM intermediate  
language directly from Haskell.
>
> - has been used with imperative languages yet, no experience available
>   on using it for FP.

Very true. On the other hand, the LLVM team would probably value the  
feedback. Having LLVM work with FP languages would be a benefit to  
the FP community, too.
>
> - rather large system

Well, so is Haskell. :-) Why is this a drawback?
>
> - and finally, I have to admit: a bit of Not Invented Here
>
> One of our goals was indeed to have a Haskell-only code generator,  
> which
> has the advantage that it is easier to install, use and distribute.

Targeting LLVM would make porting Haskell to a new platform much  
easier. Maybe it would make sense to "port" ghc to emit code that  
way, in addition to C--?

Deborah