Proposal for a standard collection of algorithms/Data structures in haskell
Hi cafe, Whenever you search for a library for doing some standard task on hackage there are lots of implementations available and some of them are poorly implemented without any thoughts given to design and speed. Most of them are left as it is without any further improvements/bug fixes. A limited collection of data-structures and associated algorithms are available in base. It would be nice for the community to maintain a standard collection of recommended implementations (both fast and well designed) of data structure and algorithms (similar to Boost for C++). This can again be maintained and moderated by the community. All the implementation in the collection can adhere to a standard design principle and idiomatic haskell. I would really love to hear your thoughts on this proposal. -Satvik
what is your proposal, exactly? as far as collection types are concerned, it seems to me that http://hackage.haskell.org/package/containers is well-designed, well-documented, well-implemented, and well-maintained. - J.W.
I'm not sure I'd agree exactly that containers is well-documented. It's extremely common for beginners[1] to have unintentional space leaks in Data.Map due to the non-strict value, and the documentation doesn't say anything about this common pitfall. The only thing it says is "If you need value-strict maps, use Strict instead.", which is great if you already know what you're doing, but not so great if you don't. I don't have any problems with the implementation, design, or maintenance, but the documentation could be improved for people who are new to Haskell. [1] I contributed the Haskell path to http://exercism.io/ and do a lot of code review there. I don't think I've ever seen someone use Data.Map correctly the first time. On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Johannes Waldmann < waldmann@imn.htwk-leipzig.de> wrote:
what is your proposal, exactly?
as far as collection types are concerned, it seems to me that http://hackage.haskell.org/package/containers is well-designed, well-documented, well-implemented, and well-maintained.
- J.W.
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Yes, I know containers is best in what it does but it is not very complete even if we compare it with c++ stl. Almost all the functionality of c++ stl have haskell implementation on hackage in some form or other but they lack good design and documentation and are not well maintained. I am not implying one package to do everything but more like a set of packages following a unified design with extremely well documented interface. It should be comprehensive and should support easy inclusion of new algorithms/data structures with community recommended implementations (containers can be part of it). It should be well tested, optimized and ready to be used in production code. I have mentioned c++ stl just for reference but I am inclined more towards Boost like set of libraries. This is one place where I think haskell is lacking compared to other languages and it is one of the critical point in its wider acceptance. -SC On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 5:25 PM, Johannes Waldmann < waldmann@imn.htwk-leipzig.de> wrote:
what is your proposal, exactly?
as far as collection types are concerned, it seems to me that http://hackage.haskell.org/package/containers is well-designed, well-documented, well-implemented, and well-maintained.
- J.W.
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-- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Satvik Chauhan Fourth Year Under Graduate Student Deptt. of Computer Science and Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Kanpur-208016, INDIA Email: mystic.satvik@gmail.com , satvikc@iitk.ac.in --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
satvik chauhan
I am inclined more towards Boost like set of libraries.
For reference, http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_54_0/ It's not only "algorithms and data structures" - it also contains Filesystem, System, Interprocess etc. Perhaps "stable hackage" goes in this direction? http://www.yesodweb.com/blog/2012/11/stable-vetted-hackage Reading the Boost FAQ and History might prove useful, ( http://www.boost.org/users/proposal.pdf ) as perhaps the process could be emulated. One way or the other - such a plan needs dedication, but also hard resources (time, money). Looks like a task for http://industry.haskell.org/ but of course they decide where they put their money. And they do, e.g., they sponsor Hackage(2) - J.W.
Stable hackage is quiet similar but has a different philosophy of solving the dependency problems with hackage. I am not proposing to cover all the functionalities of boost but leaning towards following a similar philosophy. We could start with libraries covering functionality of c++ stl (some of them are already implemented in containers) and then see where this goes. I know it requires real hard work and dedication and thats why I raised this as a community proposal to see if people are actually interested. -SC On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 6:51 PM, Johannes Waldmann < waldmann@imn.htwk-leipzig.de> wrote:
satvik chauhan
writes: I am inclined more towards Boost like set of libraries.
For reference, http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_54_0/
It's not only "algorithms and data structures" - it also contains Filesystem, System, Interprocess etc.
Perhaps "stable hackage" goes in this direction? http://www.yesodweb.com/blog/2012/11/stable-vetted-hackage
Reading the Boost FAQ and History might prove useful, ( http://www.boost.org/users/proposal.pdf ) as perhaps the process could be emulated.
One way or the other - such a plan needs dedication, but also hard resources (time, money).
Looks like a task for http://industry.haskell.org/ but of course they decide where they put their money. And they do, e.g., they sponsor Hackage(2)
- J.W.
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-- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Satvik Chauhan Fourth Year Under Graduate Student Deptt. of Computer Science and Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Kanpur-208016, INDIA Email: mystic.satvik@gmail.com , satvikc@iitk.ac.in --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
participants (3)
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Bob Ippolito -
Johannes Waldmann -
satvik chauhan