Simon Courtenage wrote:
This is for a project to port an open-source C++ library to haskell.
Great! We'd love to give you whatever support you need for your efforts.
My initial plan is to more or less preserve the way the library works in the first draft of the port and see how far we can get like that
That's fine, as long as you truly mean the way it works, and not the way the code is structured. Haskell is a post-OO language. Its abstractions are very different than class structures in C++. There is no direct translation - any given C++ class structure could correspond to many totally different kinds of Haskell programs, depending on what the program is trying to do. If you are trying to find a method to transliterate a strongly OO-style C++ program more or less word for word into Haskell in a way that the class structure of the C++ will still be apparent in the result, you are likely in for a frustrating experience. You will spend a lot more time than you expected, and the results will be very unsatisfying. Many others have ended up that way. On the other hand, if you are willing to be a little more flexible in your thinking, you'll probably find the task much easier than you thought, enjoy it, and reap many benefits from the process that you never imagined. In any case, please keep us in the loop, we'd like to hear how it's going. And, uh... would you be willing to share a few more details about what it is that you're trying to port? ;) Thanks, Yitz