September 2012 - Haskell-Cafe

JavaScript (SpiderMonkey, V8, etc) embedded in GHC?
by Bob Hutchison 13 Nov '12

13 Nov '12

Hi, I've looked around with no success… this surprises me actually. Has anyone embedded SpiderMonkey, V8, or any other relatively decent JavaScript interpreters in GHC (using the FFI)? I did find http://justinethier.github.com/husk-scheme/ which is a scheme R5RS implementation (I could make this work). There's also some work done embedding Lua. I also found a number of packages that compile javascript to Haskell, or the other way around, but I don't need that kind of thing. All I really need is to allow users to write some JavaScript that accepts a single JSON 'file/string' from my Haskell program and produces another JSON 'file/string' that my Haskell program will accept. Thanks, Bob

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Call for discussion: OverloadedLists extension
by Michael Snoyman 07 Nov '12

07 Nov '12

(Prettier formatting available at: https://gist.github.com/3761252) Many of us use the OverloadedStrings language extension on a regular basis. It provides the ability to keep the ease-of-use of string literal syntax, while getting the performance and correctness advantages of specialized datatypes like ByteString and Text. I think we can get the same kind of benefit by allowing another literal syntax to be overloaded, namely lists. ## Overly simple approach The simplest example I can think of is allowing easier usage of Vector: [1, 2, 3] :: Vector Int In order to allow this, we could use a typeclass approach similar to how OverloadedStrings works: class IsList a where fromList :: [b] -> a b instance IsList Vector where fromList = V.fromList foo :: Vector Int foo = fromList [1, 2, 3] ## Flaws However, such a proposal does not allow for constraints, e.g.: instance IsList Set where fromList = Set.fromList No instance for (Ord b) arising from a use of `Set.fromList' In the expression: Set.fromList In an equation for `fromList': fromList = Set.fromList In the instance declaration for `IsList Set' Additionally, it provides for no means of creating instances for datatypes like Map, where the contained value is not identical to the value contained in the original list. In other words, what I'd like to see is: [("foo", 1), ("bar", 2)] :: Map Text Int ## A little better: MPTC A simplistic approach to solve this would be to just use MultiParamTypeClasses: class IsList input output where fromList :: [input] -> output instance IsList a (Vector a) where fromList = V.fromList foo :: Vector Int foo = fromList [1, 2, 3] Unfortunately, this will fail due to too much polymorphism: No instance for (IsList input0 (Vector Int)) arising from a use of `fromList' Possible fix: add an instance declaration for (IsList input0 (Vector Int)) In the expression: fromList [1, 2, 3] In an equation for `foo': foo = fromList [1, 2, 3] This can be worked around by giving an explicit type signature on the numbers in the list, but that's not a robust solution. In order to solve this properly, I think we need either functional dependencies or type families: ## Functional dependencies class IsList input output | output -> input where fromList :: [input] -> output instance IsList a (Vector a) where fromList = V.fromList instance Ord a => IsList a (Set a) where fromList = Set.fromList instance Ord k => IsList (k, v) (Map k v) where fromList = Map.fromList foo :: Vector Int foo = fromList [1, 2, 3] bar :: Set Int bar = fromList [1, 2, 3] baz :: Map String Int baz = fromList [("foo", 1), ("bar", 2)] ## Type families class IsList a where type IsListInput a fromList :: [IsListInput a] -> a instance IsList (Vector a) where type IsListInput (Vector a) = a fromList = V.fromList instance Ord a => IsList (Set a) where type IsListInput (Set a) = a fromList = Set.fromList instance Ord k => IsList (Map k v) where type IsListInput (Map k v) = (k, v) fromList = Map.fromList foo :: Vector Int foo = fromList [1, 2, 3] bar :: Set Int bar = fromList [1, 2, 3] baz :: Map String Int baz = fromList [("foo", 1), ("bar", 2)] ## Conclusion Consider most of this proposal to be a strawman: names and techniques are completely up to debate. I'm fairly certain that our only two choices to implement this extension is a useful way is fundeps and type families, but perhaps there's another approach I'm missing. I don't have any particular recommendation here, except to say that fundeps is likely more well supported by other compilers.

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Tutorial: Haskell for the Evil Genius
by Andrew Pennebaker 15 Oct '12

15 Oct '12

I've gotten mixed feedback from Reddit for my tutorial. It provides an overview of how functional and declarative programming in Haskell empower baddies, increasing the accuracy and efficiency of their atomic superweapons. What do you guys think of my tutorial, Haskell for the Evil Genius <http://www.yellosoft.us/evilgenius/>? Cheers, Andrew Pennebaker www.yellosoft.us

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64-bit vs 32-bit haskell platform on Mac: misleading notice on Platform website?
by Eugene Kirpichov 12 Oct '12

12 Oct '12

Hi, I installed Haskell Platform 32-bit on a fresh 64-bit mac, because the page http://www.haskell.org/platform/mac.html says: "Pick the 32-bit vesion, unless you have a specific reason to use the 64-bit version. The 32-bit one is slightly faster for most programs." Then, during the installation of a package, the following happeed: Loading package cairo-0.12.3.1 ... <command line>: can't load .so/.DLL for: /opt/local/lib/libz.dylib (dlopen(/opt/local/lib/libz.dylib, 9): no suitable image found. Did find: /opt/local/lib/libz.dylib: mach-o, but wrong architecture) That libz.dylib is a 64-bit library and it can't be used by 32-bit Haskell platform. QUESTION: It seems to me that most people, at least most who care about "slightly faster" programs, are likely to run into something like this - using native 64-bit libraries. Compatibility exists only in the opposite direction. Wouldn't it be appropriate to remove this notice and ask people to use the 64-bit version unless they have a specific reason not to? -- Eugene Kirpichov http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekirpichov We're hiring! http://tinyurl.com/mirantis-openstack-engineer

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a parallel mapM?
by Greg Fitzgerald 08 Oct '12

08 Oct '12

I'm new to concurrent programming in Haskell. I'm looking for a drop-in replacement for 'mapM' to parallelize a set of independent IO operations. I hoped 'mapConcurrently' might be it, but I need something that will only spawn as many threads as I have CPUs available [1]. I also tried Control.Parallel.Strategies [2]. While that route works, I had to use unsafePerformIO. Considering that IO is for sequencing effects and my IO operation doesn't cause any side-effects (besides hogging a file handle), is this a proper use of unsafePerformIO? Attempt 1 -------------- import System.Process(readProcess) import Control.Concurrent.Async(mapConcurrently) main :: IO [String] main = mapConcurrently (\n -> readProcess "echo" ["test: " ++ show n] "") [0..1000] $ ghc --version The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 7.6.1 $ runghc test.hs test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: runInteractiveProcess: pipe: Too many open files test.hs: echo: createProcess: resource exhausted (Too many open files) Attempt 2 -------------- import System.Process(readProcess) import Control.Parallel.Strategies(parMap, rpar) import System.IO.Unsafe(unsafePerformIO) main :: IO [String] main = myMapConcurrently (\n -> readProcess "echo" ["test: " ++ show n] "") [0..1000] where myMapConcurrently f = return . parMap rpar (unsafePerformIO . f) $ runghc test.hs > /dev/null && echo Success Success Thanks, Greg

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HaskellDB Convertible Exception: incompatible types
by Andras Gyomrey 05 Oct '12

05 Oct '12

Hi, I get *** Exception: Convertible: error converting source data SqlLocalTime 2012-04-27 10:22:15 of type SqlValue to type Data.Time.LocalTime.LocalTime.ZonedTime: incompatible types when i try to show a record with a field of type CalendarTime (automatically generated by Database.HaskellDB.DBDirect, Mysql database type is "timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP" I already looked forhttp:// haskell.1045720.n5.nabble.com/programmatic-DB-interface-td3120759.html. But the problem there is about a regexp (not a type). And the incompatible type problem was caused because of a concatenation. Here, as you can see, i have no idea what's going on. Can someone please help me? Andras

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Possible bug in Criterion or Statistics package
by Till Berger 02 Oct '12

02 Oct '12

Dear all, I may have stumbled upon a bug in the Criterion package. When running the attached Haskell program (Benchmark.hs, a simple test case) on multiple cores (with +RTS -N, +RTS -N2, +RTS -N3 etc.) it sooner or later crashes with the following exception: Benchmark: thread blocked indefinitely in an MVar operation With profiling support enabled and run with the xc flag I get the following output before the crash: *** Exception (reporting due to +RTS -xc): (THUNK_STATIC), stack trace: Statistics.Resampling.Bootstrap.bootstrapBCA, called from Main.main, called from Main.CAF --> evaluated by: Main.main, called from Main.CAF *** Exception (reporting due to +RTS -xc): (THUNK_STATIC), stack trace: Statistics.Resampling.Bootstrap.bootstrapBCA, called from Main.main *** Exception (reporting due to +RTS -xc): (THUNK_STATIC), stack trace: Statistics.Resampling.Bootstrap.bootstrapBCA, called from Main.main *** Exception (reporting due to +RTS -xc): (THUNK_STATIC), stack trace: Statistics.Resampling.Bootstrap.bootstrapBCA, called from Main.main, called from Main.CAF I have tested this with GHC versions 7.0.4 and 7.4.2 and Criterion 0.6.0.1. So I am not sure if this is a bug in Criterion itself, the Statistics package or any dependency or if I am doing something obviously wrong. I would be grateful if someone could look into this as it is holding me back from using Criterion for benchmarking my code. Regards, Till Berger

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ANNOUNCE: Sylvia, a lambda calculus visualizer
by Chris Wong 02 Oct '12

02 Oct '12

Hello all Some of you in the audience may have read Dave Keenan's paper, [To Dissect a Mockingbird][]. A subset of that may have wondered if it was possible to generate those pretty pictures programmatically. For that subset, I can answer to you -- yes, yes you can. [To Dissect a Mockingbird]: http://dkeenan.com/Lambda/ Sylvia is a lambda calculus visualizer. It takes in an expression in the untyped lambda calculus and spits out a pretty picture. This is still in very early alpha, but it renders a fair number of combinators correctly. I plan to add animated reduction (once I figure out how to do it), and eventually develop this into a sandbox game of some sort. I'm hoping to get some comments and ideas on how I can take it from here. Obligatory links ---------------- Hackage: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/sylvia Source: https://github.com/lfairy/sylvia Documentation: https://github.com/lfairy/sylvia/wiki ----------------

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Monads
by Vasili I. Galchin 02 Oct '12

02 Oct '12

Hello, I would an examples of monads that are pure, i.e. no side-effects. Thank you, Vasili

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List indexer
by Alex Stangl 02 Oct '12

02 Oct '12

Hi, I have written a small "wrapper" to speed random-access to a list. The usage scenario I have in mind is a "stream" computation yielding an infinite list, and I want to randomly access elements w/o having to traverse the entire list from the beginning for each access. I suspected something similar must already exist, but nothing I looked at seemed to do the trick. IntMap seems to want a finite input list. Ditto for the various array types, except possibly dynamic array. Attached is the list indexer I came up with, and a small test program (I swap the commented-out lines to switch btw. list & list index tests). I am interested to hear any feedback on this -- whether it duplicates something that already exists, or whether there's a better approach, and comments on the code, etc. Also if somebody can suggest a better name (so as not to overlay the word index too much.) I'll publish it on hackage (or at least github) if people think it's useful. It sped up the program I initally wrote it for enormously. Thanks, Alex

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