Hello,
Would you go as far to say that when new programmers ask which database binding to use, we should _recommend_ HDBC then? (As we do gtk2hs, for the gui libraries).
I'm not sure about this. Although I didn't extensively compare HSQL and HDBC, I got the impression that they offered roughly the same core functionality-- though HDBC seemed to have a few more bells and whistles, and seems to be better maintained. One thing about HDBC is that it provides, and to a certain extent encourages using, a function to lazily retrieve query results. While this can be very convenient, it can also easily lead to very frustrating errors and/or resource leaks (just like any lazy IO operation); I eventually had to remove all trace of this function from my code base. Ideally something like HaskellDB (i.e. a DSL on top of HDBC or HSQL) would be the right thing for new Haskell programmers; however HaskellDB's current documentation really needs to be improved (i.e. easier to find, more comprehensive, full examples... ) before it makes sense to recommend it. Takusen also seems like a good candidate for recommending to new Haskell programmers; the only reason I haven't seriously considered switching to Takusen is the lack of ODBC bindings. I think Takusen's basic design, besides being safe, is quite in line with Haskell and functional programming; Takusen is also actively maintained. On the other hand, Takusen probably has a steeper learning curve than HDBC for a new functional programmer. At this point in time, my advice to new Haskell programmers would be: first try Takusen, as long as it can connect to the server you're using (and don't hesitate to ask the maintainers and/or haskell-cafe questions); then try HDBC, perhaps avoiding the lazy retrieval function. -Jeff