[web-devel] Hoogle Advice

[Neil Mitchell]

Hi,

I do appreciate the argument that I am likely to do lots of things
that may benefit from a framework, and I have somewhat developed a
framework for Hoogle. It has 3 layers, each calling the one below.

:: IO () -- run a web server
:: CmdLine -> Request -> IO Response -- deal with request/response,
this layer is about 15 lines
:: Database -> Query -> String -- the actual logic

The first layer has been mostly replaced by WAI/Warp. The second layer
is very small, and I don't think has any bits in it that could be
abstracted. In the third layer the only feature I might make use of
from a web framework is some templating library. Previously the third
layer made use of trhsx, the XML in Haskell dialect, but then I
switched back to just building strings. (I will probably change the
String return to Builder at some point, or switch to a templating
library.)

Given that Hoogle does a lot more back end processing, and not so much
serving of images/form submission/websity things etc.I think the use
case for a framework would be limited - there just isn't enough code
to get any gains - my .cabal file would probably grow more than my
lines of code decreases :-)

If in future Hoogle becomes more webby, gets more web features, I
might grab more bits of web framework into the mix.

> That's one of the main reasons I've designed Yesod and WAI the way I
> have. By splitting the project up into so many pieces (Hamlet,
> Persistent, authenticate, etc), users get to pick and choose exactly
> what they want. Sure, as a framework author I would prefer them using
> the whole stack, but as someone trying to push Haskell into more
> mainstream use[1], giving people choice here is best.

I am a big fan of the Yesod approach of lots of small components, that
can be used separately, but also integrate nicely. If I ever go
shopping for a template library I'll certainly be looking for
something with similar properties.

Thanks, Neil