- Haskell-Cafe - Haskell.org

Re: [Haskell-cafe] Interpreting fields in a buffer
by Tomasz Zielonka 28 Jan '04

28 Jan '04

On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 02:39:32PM -0800, John Meacham wrote: > On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 01:24:37PM +0100, Tomasz Zielonka wrote: > > 3) Roll your own (de)serialization framework > > > > That's what I did. It's a bit complicated, but I will try to describe it > > within a couple of days. Right now all I can say is that it uses TH and > > has a couple of implementations of low-lever decoders, one of which > > reads directly from UArray Int Word8. I managed to achieve throughput of > > 3 MB / s for quite complicated binary protocols, and I think I can > > improve that even further. > > Hi, I would be very interesting in looking at the design of this. Is it > available on the web somewhere? I've put the code in attachment. I compiled in GHC 6.0.1 (this may matter because of Template Haskell. I also used other GHC extensions). There is an Example.hs, which shows how to declare a record for IP header and how to use both supplied parsers. This is not a standalone program, so to try it, compile it with ghc -O2 --make Example and load it in GHCi (you have to compile it first, because the interpreter can't handle unboxed tuples). The library is really very simple, I created it quickly to solve some immediate problems. There is no support for bitfields - I think there would be if I had to deal with them ;) The original library used little endian encoding. I changed to big endian aka network order, but there really should be a possibility to choose. Right now I am not sure how this choice should be available to the user. The ability to easily switch from Parsec to an efficient UArray Parser and the benefit from specializing 'times' came as nice surprises. Well, not exactly unexpected surprises, because I was striving for it a bit, but it was easier than I thought. Template Haskell is used to automatically derive instances for record types. In my application I had to create some instances by hand, because some regions of binary files where not self-describing - they needed additional information from the outside. There is also an encoding part - if someone's interested, I can extract it from the application. The funny thing is that I was only supposed to produce files, not parse them. But I started by doing a parser and thanks to a declarative approach, when I finished the parser, the unparser was ready almost instantly. One way to introduce bitfields and varying endianness would be to design some description language like that in Erlang (some algebraic datatype should suffice). Then we could generate datatypes and class instances from it using TH. Something like that (just a sketch): ipHeaderLayout = Record "IPHeader" [ BitField "Word8" BE [ (4, Just ("iphHeaderLen", "!Word8")) , (4, Just ("iphVersion", "!Word8")) ] , Field "iphTOS" (Unsigned 1 BE) "!Word8" , Field "iphTotalLen" (Unsigned 2 BE) "!Word16" , Field "iphID" (Unsigned 2 BE) "!Word16" , Field "iphFragOff" (Unsigned 2 BE) "!Word16" , Field "iphTTL" (Unsigned 1 BE) "!Word8" , Field "iphProtocol" (Unsigned 1 BE) "!Word8" , Field "iphCheck" (Unsigned 2 BE) "!Word16" , Field "iphSAddr" (Unsigned 4 BE) "!Word32" , Field "iphDAddr" (Unsigned 4 BE) "!Word32" ] $(createDataType ipHeaderLayout) $(createDecodableClassInstance ipHeaderLayout) $(createEncodableClassInstance ipHeaderLayout) Best regards, Tom -- .signature: Too many levels of symbolic links

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Interpreting fields in a buffer
by Dominic Steinitz 27 Jan '04

27 Jan '04

I looked at the Erlang syntax when I wrote my helper functions and I agree it is very nifty. I didn't have the time to investigate how to do it in Haskell but it would be disappointing if it (or something like it) couldn't be done. Dominic. > > Mikael, > > Thanks, that's very helpful and seems to be just the sort of > thing I'm looking for. > > Greg > > > On Jan 26, 2004, at 6:05 PM, Mikael Brockman wrote: > > > > You'll probably want to take a look at Erlang's so called ``bit > > syntax'' > > at http://www.erlang.se/euc/00/bit_syntax.html. It's very nifty, and > > I'd love to see it (or something equally convenient) as a Haskell > > extension. > > > > Hugs and kisses, > > Mikael Brockman > >

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Simple "Maybe" question
by Jim Lewis 27 Jan '04

27 Jan '04

I'm new to Haskell and can't find an example to solve a trivial problem. I have code like this: findBlank :: [] -> Int findBlank str = findIndex (==' ') str But interpreter complains elsewhere of mismatch of Int with Maybe Int. I want to handle the maybe only here and nowhere else. This just makes matters worse: findBlank str = Just findIndex (==' ') str Thanks. Powered by the E-mail PIM - Info Select - www.miclog.com

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elemt from list
by Pajo Patak 27 Jan '04

27 Jan '04

I want to return a list, from and list of lists (all integers), where is the erroe in the code? nthList :: [[a]] -> Int -> [a] nthList ([x]:xs) 1 = [x] nthList ([x]:xs) (n+1) = nthListh xs n _________________________________________________________________ Schützen Sie Ihren Posteingang vor unerwünschten E-Mails. http://www.msn.de/antispam/prevention/junkmailfilter Jetzt Hotmail-Junk-Filter aktivieren!

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RE: [Haskell-cafe] elemt from list
by Bayley, Alistair 27 Jan '04

27 Jan '04

There is a Prelude function "!!" which I think would do what you want: <http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/libraries/base/Data.List.html#v%3A! !> You may find other useful list functions in this library... > -----Original Message----- > From: Pajo Patak [mailto:brutalbanal@hotmail.com] > Sent: 27 January 2004 09:32 > To: haskell-cafe(a)haskell.org > Subject: [Haskell-cafe] elemt from list > > > I want to return a list, from and list of lists (all > integers), where is > the erroe in the code? > > nthList :: [[a]] -> Int -> [a] > nthList ([x]:xs) 1 = [x] > nthList ([x]:xs) (n+1) = nthListh xs n ***************************************************************** Confidentiality Note: The information contained in this message, and any attachments, may contain confidential and/or privileged material. It is intended solely for the person(s) or entity to which it is addressed. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient(s) is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. ***************************************************************** ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information on a proactive email security service working around the clock, around the globe, visit http://www.messagelabs.com ________________________________________________________________________

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Interpreting fields in a buffer
by Dominic Steinitz 26 Jan '04

26 Jan '04

Gregory, I don't know if this helps but I ended creating functions like the ones below (I didn't need to use the C structures because the IP definition is language independent). I'm sure there are better ways and I didn't test the throughput but I was able to develop a Haskell version of ping and traceroute (both multi-threaded). It would be nice if there were a library so that we didn't end up re-inventing the wheel. Dominic. ipHeaderLength :: String -> Int ipHeaderLength s = (fromIntegral (ord (s !! 0)) .&. 0x0f) * 4 ipTTL :: String -> Int ipTTL s = fromIntegral (ord (s !! 8)) ipProtocol :: String -> IPProto ipProtocol s = toEnum (ord (s !! 9)) ipDestAddr :: String -> HostAddress ipDestAddr s = fromIntegral (ord (s !! 16)) `shiftL` 24 + fromIntegral (ord (s !! 17)) `shiftL` 16 + fromIntegral (ord (s !! 18)) `shiftL` 8 + fromIntegral (ord (s !! 19)) ----- Original Message ----- > > Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 22:44:58 -0500 > From: Gregory Wright <gwright(a)antiope.com> > To: haskell-cafe(a)haskell.org > Subject: [Haskell-cafe] Interpreting fields in a buffer > Message-ID: <0356DB09-4FB2-11D8-A3D2-00039398F084(a)antiope.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed > MIME-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v609) > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Precedence: list > Message: 1 > > > Hi, > > I have a question related to a program I'm writing. I have to handle IP > packets, > which will be read into a buffer. What is the best haskell idiom for > getting access > to the fields in the buffer? > > The IP header has a number of fixed format fields. In C, I would define > a struct, > then cast the pointer to the beginning of the buffer to a pointer to > the struct. I would then be > able to access each field in the header as <packet_struct_ptr> -> > <field>. > > Is there a way in haskell to declare the format of the header, then > access the > components of the buffer as elements of those types? I'm only going to > do read > access on the buffer (an unboxed array). Most fields won't be examined > but I can't > tell in advance which ones will have to be looked at. > > I've not seen an example of this kind and was wondering if this was > especially awkward. > > Thanks. > > Best Wishes, > Greg > > Gregory Wright > Antiope Associates LLC > 18 Clay Street > Fair Haven, New Jersey 07704 > > gwright(a)antiope.com >

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Re: Simple Fudgets-question
by Thomas Hallgren 26 Jan '04

26 Jan '04

Henrik Berg wrote: >Hi! > >I can't find any function in the Fudgets-library to do this: > >(F a b) -> (F a (a, b)) > >... All I want to do is to resend the input out on the output. > > If that is all you want, this combinator is the right choice: throughF :: F a b -> F a (Either b a) -- Thomas H

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Matrix as list of list
by Pajo Patak 26 Jan '04

26 Jan '04

Hello i am new to Haskell and i could need some help :) I want to make a function getElement which returns me an Element from a martix, which ist represented as a list of lists, e.g. [[1,2,3] [4,5,6]] is a 2x3 Matrix. The Type of the function getElement is Int->Int->[[a]]->a Can someone help me please? _________________________________________________________________ 5 neue Buddies = 50 FreeSMS. http://messenger-mania.msn.de MSN Messenger empfehlen und kräftig abräumen!

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[jimlewis@miclog.com: Haskell web]
by John Peterson 26 Jan '04

26 Jan '04

Here are some comments regarding Haskell and the website. I think there are some things we can do to make it a little easier on people that enter haskell.org from outside the sheltered halls of academia. I think the comment about the organization of haskell.org is fairly accurate - we have been adding more and more content without a really systematic way of searching for things. I would really like to be able to sift through the information at haskell.org in a more useful way. Much of the best content on haskell.org is hidden in Mailman archives - I also have problems digging through old topics. I'm not sure we should change over to different discussion software but maybe we could do something better to access the archives. John ------- Start of forwarded message ------- Subject: Haskell web To: "peterson-john(a)cs.yale.edu" <peterson-john(a)cs.yale.edu> From: "Jim Lewis" <jimlewis(a)miclog.com> Hi John I would like to offer my input on how to make Haskell more successful. In running a software publishing company over the years I got a bit behind in language technology and only discovered FP and Haskell a few days ago. FP in general and Haskell specifically appear to be a great advance over OOPs (we use c++). So it's surprising that Haskell is not more mainstream. With years of experience in software publishing, I thought it might be helpful to offer some strategic feedback (aka constructive criticism), knowing well that I am probably not the first to make these points. Actually I am excited enough over the potential of Haskell that I would consider trying to help commercialize the language but unfortunately my plate is rather full at the moment. In summary, the problem is that the site and tools nearly stopped me from learning Haskell. I had a lot of trouble getting over the initial hump - not so much because of the concepts but because of the site, tools, and docs. (I still only know about 10% of the language but I can now get some trivial apps (a few pages of code) to run.) Here are some of the problems I encountered: 1) Site organization - I wasted hours finding SOEGraphics as I missed the link about older versions. It seems unlikely I am the first with this problem and must conclude that someone is not carefully listening to feedback. I almost gave up with Haskell due to this small glitch. 2) The documentation on the site and in two books I have starts out slow and then picks up speed too fast leaving the reader in the dust. 3) The archaic forum UI makes it impractical to find anything and the zip archive is a broken link. And the topics are mostly too advanced for a novice. For about $150 one can buy a modern forum management package. Downloading zip archives went out of style close to a decade ago. 4) The search options are usually unproductive. For example I could not find how to resolve how to handle the Maybe construct in my app. I only found advanced discussions that did not help. My use was very simple. 5) Someone is not listening to bugs. Hugs crashes on startup after changing any value in the options dialog. This also wasted hours. I can't be the first to experience this. I also almost gave up after this experience. 6) The language reference has numerous functions with no description or examples. I know you know this but find it hard to understand how it can remain so. The Prelude Tour on the other hand is a model of the proper approach - I found it very helpful in learning the language as each function showed the description, code, syntax, and examples. 7) There is so much complexity to the language that it should be made clear what minimal subset one needs to learn to start writing some code. It took a while to figure out what I needed. Once the user starts writing code successfully he will be much more hooked. I realize it must be difficult in a non-commercial environment to depend on volunteers to fix such problems but these types of glitches will stop all but the most dedicated newbies. I would like to see Haskell succeed and offer any advice on setting a better strategy for managing the spread of the language. No doubt you've heard most of the above many times before but perhaps I've added something new from the perspective of someone with almost two decades of experience in commercializing software. Regards, Jim Lewis President Micro Logic New Jersey 201-447-6991 x 113 ------- End of forwarded message -------

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RE: [Haskell] Gallopping Tab characters
by Simon Marlow 26 Jan '04

26 Jan '04

> Simon Marlow wrote: > > As for the width of the tab character: tab stops are every > 8 columns. > > Period. The Haskell report says so > > Yes, true. I think it was Leslie Lamport who wrote in TeXHaX > that anyone > defining an input format which includes tabs should be > sentenced to ten years > programming COBOL in Nijny-Novgorod. Off you go, Simon ... :) /me grabs COBOL book and bottle of Vodka sniff Simon

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