Haskell Libraries Wishlist

[Olaf Chitil]

Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:

>One thing the Haskell community currently lacks, and could really do
>with, is a simple way to for people who have a library to add it to
>//www.haskell.org/libraries/ (or somewhere similar), without requiring
>intervention by the web-site manager.  All that's needed is a web form
>where the contributor can fill in the name of her library, type comments
>about it, and point to the download.
>
>Doubtless there is scope for endless potential sophistication... adding
>a new version of an old library, a decent way to categorise libraries
>under headings that aren't just hardwired, some way of filtering ("show
>me the ones that are nhc-compatible"), ways for library consumers to
>record star-ratings and reviews so that excellent libraries are visibly
>rewarded, etc. 
>  
>
I'd just like to mention that last academic year I had a project student 
building such a system. Although the result is nice (it provides even 
some of the sophisticated features Simon mentions), I'm not happy enough 
with it to use it. This is partially because of the limited Haskell 
knowledge the student had, but mostly because the whole thing is based 
on WASH. From this project I learned that WASH is a large and complex 
library; it automatically includes lots of stuff you may not want (I 
don't want JavaScript in the pages); it has a number of problems, 
especially with preserving state; and it is changing quickly. The last 
point is good in that a number of problems disappeared within the year, 
but on the other hand the continously changing API also requires you to 
change your WASH application all the time.

Ciao,
Olaf