[Haskell] Weaving the Web with Haskell

[Seth Kurtzberg]

Don't forget about XSLT translation.  In the commercial projects that I 
have worked recently, using XSLT to translate to printed and screen 
form representations.

If I can help with this aspect, or any other aspect of the project, 
please let me know.

On Feb 3, 2004, at 9:23 AM, Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:

> Graham
>
> Having solid libraries for XML and HTTP would be a jolly good thing.  
> As
> you know, there is plenty of raw material around, but it obviously
> doesn't do what you want, yet.
>
> If you, together with other interested parties, were to get together to
> do this, the rest of us would be very grateful.  You could do that by
> directly working on the libraries distributed with GHC and Hugs (we
> could give you CVS access).  Or you could make a separate project of 
> it,
> and distribute the stuff separately, which would free you from the GHC
> and Hugs's release cycles.
>
> Simon
>
> | -----Original Message-----
> | From: haskell-bounces at haskell.org 
> [mailto:haskell-bounces at haskell.org]
> On Behalf Of Graham Klyne
> | Sent: 28 January 2004 12:37
> | To: Haskell Mailing List
> | Subject: [Haskell] Weaving the Web with Haskell
> |
> | For the past week or so, I've been wrestling with various bits of
> Haskell
> | libraries trying to get an XML parser running under Windows.  Each
> time I
> | think I've resolved a problem, another pops up to take its place.  So
> I
> | felt it was a good time to stand back and review my goals and
> approach.
> |
> |
> | Background
> |
> | I believe that Haskell has a number of characteristics that make it
> | eminently suitable for prototyping and deploying a range of web
> | technologies.  My own interest is in the Semantic Web area, but I
> think
> | Haskell could also be usefully applied to Web Services and other web
> | applications, and (as a language) potentially stands up well against
> the
> | likes of Java and Python.   The Web is spawning a host of little (and
> | not-so-little) languages, and Haskell seems to have the right 
> features
> to
> | handle these in a clean, principled fashion.  This is my working
> premise.
> |
> | Contemporary web applications are largely based on XML and HTTP.  So 
> a
> | prerequisite for widespread use of any language for Web applications
> is
> | good XML and HTTP support.  Given the right libraries, Haskell could
> make
> | handling these aspects very straightforward.  But there seems to be a
> lack.
> |
> |
> | Requirements
> |
> | Ideally, I think that the following requirements should be satisfied:
> | - full XML parser supporting all features of the current XML core and
> | namespace specifications.
> | - full HTTP support, including content negotiation, redirection,
> | read/write, GET, HEAD, PUT, POST, etc.
> | - available across all Haskell compilers on all platforms
> |
> | Practically, I think the following would be enough to make a big
> | difference, and this is what I'm currently looking for:
> | - XML support, not necessary validating, but accepting full XML 
> syntax
> and
> | supporting including internal entity definitions and substitution and
> XML
> | namespaces.
> | - capability to access the representation of a Web Resource using 
> HTTP
> GET
> | - supported uniformly by GHC and Hugs, on Linux and Windows 
> platforms.
> |
> |
> | Where I am
> |
> | I have been trying to use the HXML toolbox, because I understand it's
> the
> | only XML parser for Haskell that supports XML namespaces.
> Unfortunately,
> | it seems to be rather dependent on older versions of GHC (unless I'm
> | missing something), which is making it more problematic to adopt than
> I had
> | hoped.  Other packages, such as HaXml, seem to be more portable but 
> as
> far
> | as I'm aware are missing key functionality (notably XML namespace
> support).
> |
> |
> | Looking forward
> |
> | I shall plug away for a little while with HXML toolbox -- currently
> I'm
> | stuck for an MD5 library module -- and it may be that, with a little
> help,
> | I'll win through:  if I get it running with Hugs under Windows, I'll
> | consider that to be significant progress.
> |
> | But maybe I'm missing a trick:  is there other software I should be
> | considering to satisfy my goals?  Constructive suggestions would be
> welcome.
> |
> | I'm anticipating that as the library infrastructure project settles,
> we'll
> | see some effort to move more of this kind of support code into a
> common and
> | generally usable function library.  I hope I shall be able to
> contribute to
> | such an outcome.
> |
> | I suggest that the XML and HTTP support I've mentioned would be a key
> | enabler to allow Haskell to be more widely used for real-world
> projects as
> | well as academic research into language design issues (which 
> currently
> | seems to be its strongest developer community interest).
> |
> | #g
> |
> |
> | ------------
> | Graham Klyne
> | For email:
> | http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact
> |
> | _______________________________________________
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> | Haskell at haskell.org
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Seth Kurtzberg
CTO
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480-314-1540
888-879-5206
seth at isec.us
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