[Haskell] Haskell Weekly News - Issue 180

[Daniel Santa Cruz]

   Welcome to issue 180 of the HWN, a newsletter covering developments in
   the [1]Haskell community. This release covers the week of April 24 to
   30, 2011.

Announcements

   Eric Kow suggested (http://goo.gl/bc4JM) the creation of a Haskell
   User Group starter kit.  If you have ideas in this department,
   please see what Eric has started!

   Christopher Done wrote (http://goo.gl/2m7AJ) a response to a blog
   from Cedric entitled "Why Scala's Option and Haskell's Maybe types
   won't save you from Null." A lively conversation followed.

   Henning Thielemann started an very interesting thread
   (http://goo.gl/FWyDE) with the title "Python is lazier than
   Haskell." (See the quotes of the week for the full quote)

Quotes of the Week

   These quotes are taken from the #haskell channel, and from the
   haskell/haskell-cafe mailing lists.

   * Henning Thielemann: If Haskell is great because of its laziness,
     then Python must be even greater, since it is lazy at the type
     level.

   * Ben Lippmeier: Laziness at the value level causes space leaks, and
     laziness at the type level causes mind leaks. Neither are much fun.
     When people start wanting laziness at the kind level we'll have to
     quarantine them before the virus spreads...

   * Gregg Reynolds: If the designers could find a way to support
     laziness at the programmer level, I for one would be very grateful.

   * Felipe Almeida Lessa: But I am sure that john-millikin-is-great.txt
     must be increasing like a memory leak ;)

   * James Cook: I think Haskell questions on SO tend to the opposite
     extreme; no matter how poorly thought-out the question, the Haskell
     community will descend on it like a swarm of helpful piranhas.

   * Philippa: C++ seeing a renaissance as a functional language, is
     this a bit like rusty nails seeing a renaissance as sex toys for
     masochists?

   * #haskell: <aristid> preflex: seen FunctorSalad * preflex_ is now
     known as preflex. * copumpkin is now known as postflex. * xplat is
     now known as circumflex. <circumflex> FunctorSalad was never seen
     on #haskell-world-conquest -4 years, 3 days, 7i minutes and 0
     seconds ago, saying: RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

   * tolkad: Without a standard you are lost, adrift in a sea of
     unspecified semantics. Hold fast to the rules of the specification
     lest you be consumed by ambiguity.

   * Saizan: it's much easier via type theory, 1) prove bottom 2) ????
     3) quodlibet

   * dons: Think of a monad as a spacesuit full of nuclear waste in the
     ocean next to a container of apples. Now, you can't put oranges in
     the space suite or the nuclear waste falls in the ocean, *but* the
     apples are carried around anyway, and you just take what you need.

   * tolkad: Perhaps by using it we could modernise haskell by applying
     the principles of the new kind of science

Top Reddit Stories

   * The Irish Times: "Functional programming is more than just
esoteric; it's becoming somewhat cool."
     Domain: irishtimes.com, Score: 44, Comments: 6
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/cfUbb
     Original: http://goo.gl/1nHEY

   * Why Silkapp uses Haskell
     Domain: blog.silkapp.com, Score: 43, Comments: 0
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/IFREi
     Original: http://goo.gl/1SwNa

   * Harper again: The real point of laziness
     Domain: existentialtype.wordpress.com, Score: 38, Comments: 89
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/vA8oD
     Original: http://goo.gl/hqcpy

   * Patent 5,893,120 reduced to mathematical formulae (via Haskell)
     Domain: paulspontifications.blogspot.com, Score: 34, Comments: 13
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/PmB4K
     Original: http://goo.gl/QknmV

   * IO evaluates the Haskell heap
     Domain: blog.ezyang.com, Score: 33, Comments: 3
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/FzaGV
     Original: http://goo.gl/KNHku

   * Why Haskell?
     Domain: blog.mired.org, Score: 33, Comments: 19
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/t1r8I
     Original: http://goo.gl/cV6KL

   * Filter and Visualize Data in Seconds with Silk (Haskell-based startup)
     Domain: thenextweb.com, Score: 33, Comments: 18
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/hA9HF
     Original: http://goo.gl/NIR3U

   * Haskell libraries you should use
     Domain: blog.johantibell.com, Score: 29, Comments: 3
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/PPTWG
     Original: http://goo.gl/LmbT6

   * Tying the Knot - a really mind bending Haskell technique
     Domain: haskell.org, Score: 27, Comments: 8
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/iEdSM
     Original: http://goo.gl/5Zg6f

   * haskell.org GSoC accepted projects are up.
     Domain: self.haskell, Score: 26, Comments: 32
     On Reddit: http://goo.gl/mnrl9
     Original: /r/haskell/comments/gxj1h/haskellorg_gsoc_accepted_projects_are_up/

Top StackOverflow Questions

   * What are the best Haskell libraries to operationalize a program?
     votes: 57, answers: 3
     Read on SO: http://goo.gl/rYQiL

   * How do you design programs in Haskell or other functional
programming languages? [migrated]
     votes: 24, answers: 0
     Read on SO: http://goo.gl/IW7Z5

   * Haskell: why the convention to name a helper function "go"?
     votes: 22, answers: 3
     Read on SO: http://goo.gl/CE1O7

   * What haskell topics need to be addressed in a Real-World-Haskell style?
     votes: 21, answers: 5
     Read on SO: http://goo.gl/3tgE4

   * What are some interesting uses of high order functions?
     votes: 14, answers: 14
     Read on SO: http://goo.gl/WdGeF

   * How are mutable arrays implemented in Haskell?
     votes: 10, answers: 3
     Read on SO: http://goo.gl/LMK8u

   * Performance problem with Euler problem and recursion on Int64 types
     votes: 10, answers: 6
     Read on SO: http://goo.gl/CLXD2

About the Haskell Weekly News

   To help create new editions of this newsletter, please send stories to
   dstcruz at gmail.com.

   Until next time,
   Daniel Santa Cruz