Welcome to issue 180 of the HWN, a newsletter covering developments in the [1]Haskell community. This release covers the week of April 24 to 30, 2011. Announcements Eric Kow suggested (http://goo.gl/bc4JM) the creation of a Haskell User Group starter kit. If you have ideas in this department, please see what Eric has started! Christopher Done wrote (http://goo.gl/2m7AJ) a response to a blog from Cedric entitled "Why Scala's Option and Haskell's Maybe types won't save you from Null." A lively conversation followed. Henning Thielemann started an very interesting thread (http://goo.gl/FWyDE) with the title "Python is lazier than Haskell." (See the quotes of the week for the full quote) Quotes of the Week These quotes are taken from the #haskell channel, and from the haskell/haskell-cafe mailing lists. * Henning Thielemann: If Haskell is great because of its laziness, then Python must be even greater, since it is lazy at the type level. * Ben Lippmeier: Laziness at the value level causes space leaks, and laziness at the type level causes mind leaks. Neither are much fun. When people start wanting laziness at the kind level we'll have to quarantine them before the virus spreads... * Gregg Reynolds: If the designers could find a way to support laziness at the programmer level, I for one would be very grateful. * Felipe Almeida Lessa: But I am sure that john-millikin-is-great.txt must be increasing like a memory leak ;) * James Cook: I think Haskell questions on SO tend to the opposite extreme; no matter how poorly thought-out the question, the Haskell community will descend on it like a swarm of helpful piranhas. * Philippa: C++ seeing a renaissance as a functional language, is this a bit like rusty nails seeing a renaissance as sex toys for masochists? * #haskell: <aristid> preflex: seen FunctorSalad * preflex_ is now known as preflex. * copumpkin is now known as postflex. * xplat is now known as circumflex. <circumflex> FunctorSalad was never seen on #haskell-world-conquest -4 years, 3 days, 7i minutes and 0 seconds ago, saying: RELEASE THE KRAKEN! * tolkad: Without a standard you are lost, adrift in a sea of unspecified semantics. Hold fast to the rules of the specification lest you be consumed by ambiguity. * Saizan: it's much easier via type theory, 1) prove bottom 2) ???? 3) quodlibet * dons: Think of a monad as a spacesuit full of nuclear waste in the ocean next to a container of apples. Now, you can't put oranges in the space suite or the nuclear waste falls in the ocean, *but* the apples are carried around anyway, and you just take what you need. * tolkad: Perhaps by using it we could modernise haskell by applying the principles of the new kind of science Top Reddit Stories * The Irish Times: "Functional programming is more than just esoteric; it's becoming somewhat cool." Domain: irishtimes.com, Score: 44, Comments: 6 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/cfUbb Original: http://goo.gl/1nHEY * Why Silkapp uses Haskell Domain: blog.silkapp.com, Score: 43, Comments: 0 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/IFREi Original: http://goo.gl/1SwNa * Harper again: The real point of laziness Domain: existentialtype.wordpress.com, Score: 38, Comments: 89 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/vA8oD Original: http://goo.gl/hqcpy * Patent 5,893,120 reduced to mathematical formulae (via Haskell) Domain: paulspontifications.blogspot.com, Score: 34, Comments: 13 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/PmB4K Original: http://goo.gl/QknmV * IO evaluates the Haskell heap Domain: blog.ezyang.com, Score: 33, Comments: 3 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/FzaGV Original: http://goo.gl/KNHku * Why Haskell? Domain: blog.mired.org, Score: 33, Comments: 19 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/t1r8I Original: http://goo.gl/cV6KL * Filter and Visualize Data in Seconds with Silk (Haskell-based startup) Domain: thenextweb.com, Score: 33, Comments: 18 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/hA9HF Original: http://goo.gl/NIR3U * Haskell libraries you should use Domain: blog.johantibell.com, Score: 29, Comments: 3 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/PPTWG Original: http://goo.gl/LmbT6 * Tying the Knot - a really mind bending Haskell technique Domain: haskell.org, Score: 27, Comments: 8 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/iEdSM Original: http://goo.gl/5Zg6f * haskell.org GSoC accepted projects are up. Domain: self.haskell, Score: 26, Comments: 32 On Reddit: http://goo.gl/mnrl9 Original: /r/haskell/comments/gxj1h/haskellorg_gsoc_accepted_projects_are_up/ Top StackOverflow Questions * What are the best Haskell libraries to operationalize a program? votes: 57, answers: 3 Read on SO: http://goo.gl/rYQiL * How do you design programs in Haskell or other functional programming languages? [migrated] votes: 24, answers: 0 Read on SO: http://goo.gl/IW7Z5 * Haskell: why the convention to name a helper function "go"? votes: 22, answers: 3 Read on SO: http://goo.gl/CE1O7 * What haskell topics need to be addressed in a Real-World-Haskell style? votes: 21, answers: 5 Read on SO: http://goo.gl/3tgE4 * What are some interesting uses of high order functions? votes: 14, answers: 14 Read on SO: http://goo.gl/WdGeF * How are mutable arrays implemented in Haskell? votes: 10, answers: 3 Read on SO: http://goo.gl/LMK8u * Performance problem with Euler problem and recursion on Int64 types votes: 10, answers: 6 Read on SO: http://goo.gl/CLXD2 About the Haskell Weekly News To help create new editions of this newsletter, please send stories to dstcruz@gmail.com. Until next time, Daniel Santa Cruz