- Beginners - Haskell.org

Motivation to Learn Haskell
by Lorenzo Isella 06 Sep '10

06 Sep '10

Dear All, It is my first post to this list and please do not take it as an attempt to start any flamewar. From time to time, I try to find the motivation to learn at least the fundamentals of another programming language. I normally use R and Python on a daily basis (but I am not that much into OO programming) and have a good knowledge of Fortran and a rather superficial one of C. Beside learning a new language as a sort of mind expanding exercise, I try to figure out how and if it can save me some time in my work and how it measures up against other languages. These days I tend to rely on R for data analysis and visualization whereas I use Python (in particular Numpy+SciPy) for number crunching (it is very convenient to use scipy/numpy to solve ODE's, manipulate arrays and so on). Now, I wonder what benefit I would gain from learning Haskell since I mainly write codes for numerical simulations/data analysis. I know Haskell is gaining momentum e.g. in the financial environment (I happened to see Haskell knowledge as a specification in some quant jobs) hence it must be more than suitable for numerical work and, by the little I have understood so far, it allows one to write code really resembling mathematical expressions (I was impressed by guards and curried functions). However, it also looks to me (correct me if I am mistaken) that Haskell is a far cry from the wealth of standard and contributed scientific modules you have in Python or R and thanks to which you do not re-implement the wheel yourself. Any thoughts/suggestions are really appreciated. Cheers Lorenzo

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glib heterogenous hash table
by John Obbele 06 Sep '10

06 Sep '10

Hi everyone ! To exercise my Haskell skills, I'm currently trying to bind libxfconf-0 with Haskell. A small preview can be found on patch-tag[0]. [0]: https://patch-tag.com/r/obbele/xfconf/home Since XFCE projects rely heavily on glib, I am borrowing (lots of) code from the gtk2hs package(s). I am still having issues with gobject casts and foreign pointer finalizers, but lets focus on GHashTable for now. For those who are not familiar with glib (neither I am), GHashTable[1] are hashes with homogenous key types but values of arbitrary types. In xfconf, keys are all cstring but values can be any type of gpointers (gchar *, gint*, gdouble*, widget*, struct* ?). [1]: http://library.gnome.org/devel/glib/stable/glib-Hash-Tables.html I've tried to wrap the glib hash table in a haskell data type this way: > data GHashTable k v = GHashTable GHashTablePtr The GHashTablePtr is our Haskell foreign pointer, courtesy of C→HS. It is bound later with a g_hash_table_destroy finalizer in order to (automatically) manage memory . My real problems are: - I cannot simply map (GHashTable k v) to a (Data.Map.Map k v) - I don't know how to constraint k and v to be C pointers (Ptr CChar is ok but not Char or CChar). Does anyone have a solution or some pointers on it ? regards, /John

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Trouble in installing Packages
by Lorenzo Isella 05 Sep '10

05 Sep '10

Dear All, I am quite new to Haskell and have only very recently found out about cabal. I am interested in some haskell packages for scientific applications, but I am experiencing some problems in installing them on my machine (ubuntu 10.04, amd64 architecture). For instance, I pasted below the output of my attempts to install hmatrix-static. Any idea about how to fix this? Cheers Lorenzo $ cabal install hmatrix-static Resolving dependencies... Configuring array-0.2.0.0... Preprocessing library array-0.2.0.0... Building array-0.2.0.0... [ 1 of 10] Compiling Data.Array ( Data/Array.hs, dist/build/Data/Array.o ) Data/Array.hs:1:0: Warning: Module `Prelude' is deprecated: You are using the old package `base' version 3.x. Future GHC versions will not support base version 3.x. You should update your code to use the new base version 4.x. Data/Array/IO.hs:1:15: Warning: -#include is deprecated: No longer has any effect Data/Array/IO/Internals.hs:1:15: Warning: -#include is deprecated: No longer has any effect [ 2 of 10] Compiling Data.Array.Base ( Data/Array/Base.hs, dist/build/Data/Array/Base.o ) Data/Array/Base.hs:1:0: Warning: Module `Prelude' is deprecated: You are using the old package `base' version 3.x. Future GHC versions will not support base version 3.x. You should update your code to use the new base version 4.x. Data/Array/Base.hs:1177:8: Warning: Bindings containing unlifted types must use an outermost bang pattern: { W# e# = if initialValue then maxBound else 0 } *** This will be an error in GHC 6.14! Fix your code now! In the definition of `newArray': newArray (l, u) initialValue = ST $ \ s1# -> case safeRangeSize (l, u) of { (n@(I# n#)) -> ... } where W# e# = if initialValue then maxBound else 0 In the instance declaration for `MArray (STUArray s) Bool (ST s)' Data/Array/Base.hs:1489:8: Warning: Bindings containing unlifted types must use an outermost bang pattern: { I# last# = 8 * 8 - 1 } *** This will be an error in GHC 6.14! Fix your code now! In the definition of `bOOL_SCALE': bOOL_SCALE n# = (n# +# last#) `uncheckedIShiftRA#` 3# where I# last# = 8 * 8 - 1 Data/Array/Base.hs:1491:8: Warning: Bindings containing unlifted types must use an outermost bang pattern: { I# last# = 8 * 8 - 1 } *** This will be an error in GHC 6.14! Fix your code now! In the definition of `bOOL_WORD_SCALE': bOOL_WORD_SCALE n# = bOOL_INDEX (n# +# last#) where I# last# = 8 * 8 - 1 Data/Array/Base.hs:1492:37: Warning: Bindings containing unlifted types must use an outermost bang pattern: { I# scale# = 8 } *** This will be an error in GHC 6.14! Fix your code now! In the definition of `wORD_SCALE': wORD_SCALE n# = scale# *# n# where I# scale# = 8 Data/Array/Base.hs:1493:37: Warning: Bindings containing unlifted types must use an outermost bang pattern: { I# scale# = 8 } *** This will be an error in GHC 6.14! Fix your code now! In the definition of `dOUBLE_SCALE': dOUBLE_SCALE n# = scale# *# n# where I# scale# = 8 Data/Array/Base.hs:1494:37: Warning: Bindings containing unlifted types must use an outermost bang pattern: { I# scale# = 4 } *** This will be an error in GHC 6.14! Fix your code now! In the definition of `fLOAT_SCALE': fLOAT_SCALE n# = scale# *# n# where I# scale# = 4 Data/Array/Base.hs:1505:8: Warning: Bindings containing unlifted types must use an outermost bang pattern: { W# mask# = 8 * 8 - 1 } *** This will be an error in GHC 6.14! Fix your code now! In the definition of `bOOL_BIT': bOOL_BIT n# = int2Word# 1# `uncheckedShiftL#` (word2Int# (int2Word# n# `and#` mask#)) where W# mask# = 8 * 8 - 1 Data/Array/Base.hs:1506:47: Warning: Bindings containing unlifted types must use an outermost bang pattern: { W# mb# = maxBound } *** This will be an error in GHC 6.14! Fix your code now! In the definition of `bOOL_NOT_BIT': bOOL_NOT_BIT n# = bOOL_BIT n# `xor#` mb# where W# mb# = maxBound [ 3 of 10] Compiling Data.Array.IArray ( Data/Array/IArray.hs, dist/build/Data/Array/IArray.o ) Data/Array/IArray.hs:1:0: Warning: Module `Prelude' is deprecated: You are using the old package `base' version 3.x. Future GHC versions will not support base version 3.x. You should update your code to use the new base version 4.x. [ 4 of 10] Compiling Data.Array.MArray ( Data/Array/MArray.hs, dist/build/Data/Array/MArray.o ) Data/Array/MArray.hs:1:0: Warning: Module `Prelude' is deprecated: You are using the old package `base' version 3.x. Future GHC versions will not support base version 3.x. You should update your code to use the new base version 4.x. [ 5 of 10] Compiling Data.Array.IO.Internals ( Data/Array/IO/Internals.hs, dist/build/Data/Array/IO/Internals.o ) Data/Array/IO/Internals.hs:1:0: Warning: Module `Prelude' is deprecated: You are using the old package `base' version 3.x. Future GHC versions will not support base version 3.x. You should update your code to use the new base version 4.x. [ 6 of 10] Compiling Data.Array.IO ( Data/Array/IO.hs, dist/build/Data/Array/IO.o ) Data/Array/IO.hs:73:13: `haFD' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Handle__' Data/Array/IO.hs:73:22: `haBuffer' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Handle__' Data/Array/IO.hs:73:36: `haIsStream' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Handle__' Data/Array/IO.hs:74:5: Not in scope: data constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:74:13: `bufBuf' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:74:25: `bufWPtr' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:74:36: `bufRPtr' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:75:4: Not in scope: `bufferEmpty' Data/Array/IO.hs:82:24: `bufWPtr' is not a (visible) constructor field name Data/Array/IO.hs:82:35: `bufRPtr' is not a (visible) constructor field name Data/Array/IO.hs:86:24: `bufRPtr' is not a (visible) constructor field name Data/Array/IO.hs:95:27: Not in scope: type constructor or class `RawBuffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:101:10: Not in scope: `readRawBuffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:125:22: `haFD' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Handle__' Data/Array/IO.hs:125:31: `haBuffer' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Handle__' Data/Array/IO.hs:125:45: `haIsStream' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Handle__' Data/Array/IO.hs:127:18: Not in scope: data constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:127:26: `bufBuf' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:127:42: `bufWPtr' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:127:53: `bufSize' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:135:30: `bufWPtr' is not a (visible) constructor field name Data/Array/IO.hs:142:7: Not in scope: data constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:142:15: `bufBuf' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:142:27: `bufState' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:142:36: Not in scope: data constructor `WriteBuffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:143:8: `bufRPtr' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:143:19: `bufWPtr' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:143:34: `bufSize' is not a (visible) field of constructor `Buffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:151:22: Not in scope: type constructor or class `RawBuffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:151:43: Not in scope: type constructor or class `RawBuffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:153:22: Not in scope: type constructor or class `RawBuffer' Data/Array/IO.hs:153:35: Not in scope: type constructor or class `RawBuffer' cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: array-0.2.0.0 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1 containers-0.3.0.0 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. cpphs-1.11 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. haskell-src-exts-1.2.0 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. haskell-src-meta-0.0.6 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. haskell98-1.0.1.1 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. hmatrix-0.7.2.1 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. hmatrix-static-0.3 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. packedstring-0.1.0.1 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. template-haskell-2.4.0.0 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install. tfp-0.2 depends on array-0.2.0.0 which failed to install.

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Meaning of (Eq a)
by Rohit Garg 05 Sep '10

05 Sep '10

Hi, RWH: chapter 3 - in question 5, you have to write a function which determines if a list is a palindrome. Here is my solution isPalindrome :: (Eq a) => [a] -> Bool isPalindrome [] = False isPalindrome x = compareLists x (reverse x) where compareLists [x] [y] = x == y compareLists (x:xs) (y:ys) = if x == y then compareLists xs ys else False Although it works, my question is why ghci refuses to run it without the "(Eq a) => " being added to the type signature of the function. Presumably, it is to let ghc know that you can perform equlity tests on a. If so, then why does the sumList function below work without any type signature of any kind? I haven't told ghc that the input list elements can be added together. sumList [] = 0 sumList (x:xs) = x + sumList xs Thanks, -- Rohit Garg http://rpg-314.blogspot.com/

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Re: [Haskell-beginners] Meaning of (Eq a)
by Hein Hundal 05 Sep '10

05 Sep '10

> Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 14:28:09 +0530 > From: Rohit Garg <rpg.314(a)gmail.com> > > RWH: chapter 3 - in question 5, you have to write a > function which determines if a list is a palindrome. > Here is my solution > > isPalindrome :: (Eq a) => [a] -> Bool > isPalindrome [] = False > isPalindrome x = compareLists x (reverse x) > where compareLists [x] [y] = x == y > compareLists (x:xs) (y:ys) = if x == y > then compareLists xs ys > else False > > Although it works, my question is why ghci refuses to > run it without the "(Eq a) => " being added to the type > signature of the function. Presumably, it is to let ghc > know that you can perform equality tests on a. If so, > then why does the sumList function below work without > any type signature of any kind? I haven't told ghc > that the input list elements can be added together. > > sumList [] = 0 > sumList (x:xs) = x + sumList xs When I compile isPalindrome with ghc 6.12.1, I do not get any errors even if I drop the type signature. If I drop the type signature and use ghci to get the type signature (":t isPalindrome"), then I get *Main> :t isPalindrome isPalindrome :: (Eq t) => [t] -> Bool So, it seems that ghc 6.12.1 correctly infers the types. Cheers, Hein PS: Haskell does equality of lists, so you can also use the definition isPalindrome v = v == reverse v

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Pattern matching on binary trees
by Rohit Garg 05 Sep '10

05 Sep '10

Hi, I am working on exercises in RWH, chapter 3 and I have a a question about the pattern matching in the depth-of-tree question. The tree datatype is defined as data Tree a = Node a (Tree a) (Tree a) | Empty deriving (Show) And to pattern match on it, I need to write depthTree (Node x u v) = 1 + max (depthTree u) (depthTree v) My question is why do I need to prefix x with Node? Why can't it pattern match on depthTree (x u v)? More generally, where do I need to put data constructors in pattern matches? -- Rohit Garg http://rpg-314.blogspot.com/

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Too lazy/Too strict
by Alex Rozenshteyn 03 Sep '10

03 Sep '10

I'm trying to take an html page whose last pre tag contains a hexdump and write the hex out as an executable. Link to truncated html example: http://pastebin.com/ENMDrsAT Link to my code: http://pastebin.com/XY0wgM6r I've got a memory leak somewhere, likely due to laziness, and I would appreciate help in finding it; this is the first one i've encountered, so I'm a bit clueless. -- Alex R

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Re: [Haskell-beginners] Ranges and List Comprehensions in SQL
by Brent Yorgey 03 Sep '10

03 Sep '10

On Fri, Sep 03, 2010 at 11:21:27AM -0400, Tom Murphy wrote: > > > > I am not sure I understand what you are asking. Do you want something > > like this? > > > > data Range = Range Integer Integer > > > > toRanges :: [Integer] -> [Range] > > toRanges = ... > > > > toRanges should not be too hard to write but nothing like that exists > > as far as I know. > > > > > > I don't quite understand the functionality of toRanges. When I say "range," > I mean a list containing an enumeration, in the form: > > [2..300] [2..300] is just syntactic sugar for the list [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,......,300]. It isn't actually a real "thing" in Haskell. That's why I made a new data type to represent it: data Range = Range Integer Integer toList (Range x y) = [x..y] So for example (Range 2 300) represents the list [2..300]. > The record would actually be coming from an SQL database. > I would like to be able to store a large list in SQL records, without having > to store every element. I see. So the question seems more about database design than about Haskell. Toby has suggested a more relational way to model the data, but his solution does end up storing every element. But you could do something more like CREATE TABLE tv_show ( id INTEGER NOT NULL, -- etc title VARCHAR(80), PRIMARY KEY (id) ); CREATE TABLE episode_ranges ( tv_show_id INTEGER NOT NULL, start_episode INTEGER, end_episode INTEGER PRIMARY KEY (tv_show_id, start_episode) ); Or something like that (it's been a while since I've used SQL). The data would then be more like tv_show (30, "The Simpsons") episode_ranges (30,1,4), (30,14,14), (30,18,21), (30,23,25) -Brent

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question on typeclasses and applicatives
by Alec Benzer 03 Sep '10

03 Sep '10

I came up with some code when trying to understand applicatives: import Control.Applicative import qualified Data.Map as M instance Applicative (M.Map String) where pure x = M.fromList [("",x)] fs <*> xs = M.fromList [(k1 ++ " " ++ k2,v1 v2) | k1 <- M.keys fs, k2 <- M.keys xs, v1 <- M.elems fs, v2 <- M.elems xs] 1. When I :load this in ghci it gives me some error about using (M.Map String) here, and tells me it'll work if I use the -XFlexibleInstances flag. Why is this type of behavior disabled by default? Is it potentially dangerous in some way? 2. When running the following: fromList [("double",(*2))] <*> fromList[("two",2),("seven",7)] I get: fromList [("double seven",4),("double two",4)] instead of what I'd expect: fromList [("double seven",14),("double two",4)] Although this: (*2) <$> fromList[("two",2),("seven",7)] gives what I'd expect: fromList [("seven",14),("two",4)] Why is this happening? I can't seem to figure it out.

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How does one sort with Data.Vector.Generic.Mutable?
by max smith 03 Sep '10

03 Sep '10

Hi, I have been trying to use Haskell to sort a long list of data (strings, floats etc) that is read from a large file (say a few million lines). I've been trying to use a Data.Vector.Generic.Mutable object and a sort algorithm from Data.Vector.Algorithms but I've been unable to get it to work since I haven't been able to find or create my own examples. The examples in the excellent Vector tutorial, cover filling a vector with random numbers but due to my limited understanding of monads, I can't figure out how to use the IO monad and fill a vector from a file. Does anyone have an example of how to do this. Also, is Data.Vector.Generic.Mutable the best way to read a large amount of data from a file and sort it? Thanks for any help, Max

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