Re: [Haskell-cafe] Summer of Code idea: Haskell Web Toolkit

Doesn't sound overused to me. FWIW, one of the ideas floating around in my head is exactly what you're describing. On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 2:41 PM, JP Moresmau wrote:

Maybe I'll sound like an overused meme, but what about JQuery? JQuery already takes a combinator-like approach to Javascript and DOM manipulations, so maybe we could have a combinator library that would mimic the JQuery library. We'd obviously need some extra combinators for the required parts of Javascript and HTML generation that are not done via JQuery.

JP

On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 11:10 PM, Alejandro Serrano Mena wrote:

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My idea would be reusing some of the already-available tools for compiling Haskell to JS (for example, UHC), and develop with any of them a complete library for client-side scripting; rather that redevelop a way to compile Haskell to JS.

I think it's really a pity not being able to use things like what Yesod provides in a client-side context. And both sides would benefit: they can share common code for datatypes (as it's done in Google Web Toolkit), and autogenerate some code for sending or receiving AJAX requests, for example.

2012/3/6 Michael Snoyman

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On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 11:40 PM, Alejandro Serrano Mena wrote:

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Hi, I'm really looking forward to helping in the Summer of Code, if Haskell goes into it this year (something I take for granted :). I would like to propose an idea for a project, and I'm looking for suggestions about whether it's good, should be improved or it's just unfeasible.

My idea is to make a client-side Haskell Web Toolkit, in the spirit of Google Web Toolkit, which would allow to program in Haskell the client part of a web application, and would complement the web frameworks already existing for Haskell (such as Yesod and Snap). The point is coming about with a Haskell-ish way to program applications, to reuse all the existing knowledge for our beloved language.

I've added more details in a pre-proposal in Google Docs, available

in https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FnTNO9uTobDHRTDXWurKns7vGTjeauw0nRhbtt6v... Tell me if you prefer to see it in other format, but I didn't want to generate a bigger e-mail.

Thanks in advance.

I definitely think the idea has merit. In general I'm wary of solutions which try to compile down to Javascript[1], and I'm not sure if actually providing a full Haskell-to-JS approach is a good idea. Another possibility might be a DSL/combinator library for generating JS. Though at this point, I wouldn't rule out either approach.

Yesod is currently wrapping up its 1.0 release (almost certainly out-the-door by the end of April), and after that our main focus is intended to be client-side integration, so we would certainly be happy to discuss design ideas and collaborate in general.

Michael

[1] I say "compile down to" to mean nontrivial changes, as opposed to something like Coffeescript, which is a fairly simple conversion.

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