October 2011 - Haskell

GPCE 2011 Call for Participation
by Chang Hwan Peter Kim 15 Oct '11

15 Oct '11

------------------------------------------------------------------------ CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Tenth International Conference on Generative Programming and Component Engineering (GPCE 2011) October 22-23, 2011 Portland, Oregon, USA (collocated with SPLASH 2011) http://www.gpce.org http://twitter.com/GPCECONF Facebook: GPCE 2011 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Last chance to register for GPCE 2011. The program features keynotes by Matthias Felleisen (Northeastern University) and Gary Shubert (Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company), 18 technical talks covering theoretical and practical aspects of generative and component based programming, and two tech talks by Olivier Danvy (University of Aarhus) and John Launchbury (Galois, Inc.). Registration: http://splashcon.org/2011/attending/registering GPCE SCOPE Generative and component approaches are revolutionizing software development just as automation and componentization revolutionized manufacturing. Key technologies for automating program development are Generative Programming for program synthesis, Component Engineering for modularity, and Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) for compact problem-oriented programming notations. The International Conference on Generative Programming and Component Engineering is a venue for researchers and practitioners interested in techniques that use program generation and component deployment to increase programmer productivity, improve software quality, and shorten the time-to-market of software products. In addition to exploring cutting-edge techniques of generative and component-based software, our goal is to foster further cross-fertilization between the software engineering and the programming languages research communities. ORGANIZATION Chairs (chairs(a)gpce.org) General Chair: Ewen Denney (SGT/NASA Ames, USA) Program Chair: Ulrik Pagh Schultz (University of Southern Denmark) Publicity Chair: Chang Hwan Peter Kim (University of Texas, USA) Program Committee * Andrzej Wasowski (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark) * Aniruddha Gokhale (Vanderbilt University, USA) * Bernd Fischer (University of Southampton, UK) * Bruno C. d. S. Oliveira (Seoul National University, Korea) * Christian Kaestner (Philipps Universitat Marburg, Germany) * Chung-Chieh Shan (Cornell University, USA) * Don Batory (University of Texas, USA) * Eli Tilevich (Virginia Tech, USA) * Eric Tanter (University of Chile, Chile) * Gorel Hedin (Lund University, Sweden) * Ina Schaefer (TU Braunschweig, Germany) * Jeremiah Willcock (Indiana University, USA) * Jeremy Siek (University of Colorado at Boulder, USA) * Jurgen Vinju (Centrum Wiskunde en Informatica, The Netherlands) * Lionel Seinturier (University of Lille, France) * Marjan Mernik (University of Maribor, Slovenia) * Mat Marcus (Canyonlands Software Design, USA) * Nicolas Loriant (Imperial College, France) * Ras Bodik (University of California at Berkeley, USA) * Robert Gluck (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) * Steffen Zschaler (King's College London, UK) * Tudor Girba (netstyle.ch, Switzerland) * Walter Binder (University of Lugano, Switzerland) * Yanhong A. Liu (State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA)

1 0

ANNOUNCE: vector-bytestring-0.0.0.0
by Bas van Dijk 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

All your ByteString are belong to us... Hello, I'm pleased to announce the beta release of vector-bytestring. This library provides the type ByteString which is defined as a type synonym for a storable Vector of Word8s (from the vector package): type ByteString = Data.Vector.Storable.Vector Word8 It exports the same API as the bytestring package except that the module names are prefixed with: Data.Vector.Storable.ByteString instead of Data.ByteString. The very ambitious goal of this package is that it will eventually replace our beloved bytestring package. By basing this package on vector, we can benefit from all the optimizations (like stream-fusion!) in that library. We will also have just a single library to test, debug and optimize. TEST-SUITE I ported the bytestring test-suite to vector-bytestring. You can run it using: $ cabal configure --enable-tests; cabal build; cabal test All 54800 tests pass! Only one property doesn't hold: prop_show :: ByteString -> Bool prop_show x = show x == show (unpack x) This is because I don't provide a custom Show instance for ByteStrings but use the one from Vector which shows a vector like "fromList [1,2,3]" instead as "\SOH\STX\ETX" like bytestring does. Hopefully this is not a problem in practice. BENCHMARKS I added a criterion based benchmark-suite to vector-bytestring. It consists of over 600 benchmarks that cover almost every function in the library. Also included are benchmarks which benchmark the fusion capabilities of the library. Run it using: $ cabal configure -fbenchmark; cabal build; $ dist/build/bench/bench --help Unfortunately, bytestring still out performs us in lots of benchmarks. I believe the primary cause of this is that most functions are implemented using stream-fusion. This is highly efficient if you use a composition of these functions because they will all fuse into one single efficient loop. However if your program uses only a single function, the stream based implementation is often less efficient than an implementation that works directly on a mutable vector (like most functions in bytestring). So what we want is to use stream-fusion where possible but use mutable vectors when our program doesn't fuse. Fortunately, Roman Leshchinskiy (author of vector) has an idea how to do this: http://trac.haskell.org/vector/ticket/60 Because we don't beat bytestring in all cases yet you should consider this a beta-release and not use it in production code. INSTALLING $ cabal install vector-bytestring API DOCS http://hackage.haskell.org/package/vector-bytestring-0.0.0.0 DEVELOPING $ git clone https://github.com/basvandijk/vector-bytestring Regards, Bas

2 2

CFP: FD-COMA 2012: Workshop on Feedback-Directed Compiler Optimization for Multi-Core Architectures
by Clemens Grelck 13 Oct '11

13 Oct '11

Call for Papers: FD-COMA 2012 Workshop on Feedback-Directed Compiler Optimization for Multi-Core Architectures 7th HiPEAC Conference Paris, France, Jan 23-25, 2012 http://www.project-advance.eu/2011/10/fd-coma-workshop-2012/ http://www.hipeac.org/conference FD-COMA is a one-day workshop during the 7th HiPEAC Conference in Paris, January 23-25, 2012. The workshop is loosely connected to the FP-7 project Advance, but we particularly welcome contributions from outside the project consortium. Scope: Feedback driven optimizations have long proven to be powerful instruments for achieving better hardware utilization, but the on-going multi-core/many-core revolution opens up a whole new realm of possible applications and variations of feedback-directed compiler optimization. The increasing hardware diversity of execution platforms and the likewise increasing hardware heterogeneity of individual execution platforms make compile time resource planning less and less feasible. Dynamic compilation techniques are required, instead, that adapt application programs to the actual hardware they are running on to make best use of it. Furthermore, the abundance of compute cores allows us to run feedback-directed compiler optimizations in parallel with an application itself and, thus, to adapt a running application to the hardware it is running on or to the data it is processing, to name just a few opportunities. This workshop aims at bringing people together that share an interest in the novel opportunities for feedback directed optimisations in the context of the emerging heterogeneous architectures. Main topics: + Feedback directed compiler optimization for multi-core architectures + Compiler representations for feedback information + Performance modeling for feedback, including statistical and constraint-based techniques + Performance measurement using feedback information + Exploiting feedback for heterogeneous multi-core systems + Adaptive, feedback-controlled runtime systems for multi-core architectures + Exploiting feedback information for energy savings FD-COMA welcomes submission of papers describing: + Experimental work + Industrial experience + Theoretical work + Software and hardware platforms + Work in progress all with respect to the above workshop topics Paper submission: Submitted papers must not have been published or simultaneously submitted elsewhere. The full manuscript should be at most 8 pages. Submit a PDF copy of your manuscript via EasyChair (not yet open). Each paper will receive a minimum of two reviews. Papers will be selected based on their originality, relevance, technical clarity and presentation. Authors of accepted papers must guarantee that their papers will be registered and presented at the workshop. Accepted papers will be made available at the workshop in electronic form. Important dates: Submission deadline: 4/11/2011 Notification of acceptance: 18/11/2011 Final version due: 13/1/2012 Workshop organizers: Kevin Hammond, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom Clemens Grelck, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Sven-Bodo Scholz, Heriott-Watt University, United Kingdom -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Clemens Grelck Science Park 904 University Lecturer 1098XH Amsterdam Netherlands University of Amsterdam Institute for Informatics T +31 (0) 20 525 8683 Computer Systems Architecture Group F +31 (0) 20 525 7490 Office C3.105 www.science.uva.nl/~grelck ----------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Haskell Weekly News: Issue 203
by Daniel Santa Cruz 13 Oct '11

13 Oct '11

Welcome to issue 203 of the HWN, a newsletter covering developments in the Haskell community. This release covers the week of October 2 to 8, 2011. You can find a HTML version of this issue at: http://contemplatecode.blogspot.com/2011/10/haskell-weekly-news-issue-203.h… Announcements Eric Y. Kow has released the 6th issue of the Parallel Haskell Digest. [1] http://goo.gl/zyIWX Janis Voigtlander issued an invitation to send in contributions for the 21st edition of the Haskell Communities & Activities Report. The more the merrier! [2] http://www.mail-archive.com/haskell-cafe@haskell.org/msg93759.html New and Updated Projects * clientsession (Felipe Almeida Lessa; 0.7.3.1) Fix for security vulnerability. [3] http://goo.gl/Ot8d1 * hit (Vincent Hanquez) An implementation of low level git operations to read and write to a git repository. [4] http://goo.gl/bVxHw * OpenCL (Luis Cabellos; 1.0.1.3) An aparent fork of OpenCLRRaw package, done due to lack of updates from upstream. [5] http://goo.gl/bVxHw * HaTeX (Daniel Diaz Casanueva; 3) A set of combinators which allow you to build LaTeX code, following the LaTeX syntax in a type-safe manner. [6] http://goo.gl/zuW36 * Parsec (Antoine Latter; 3.1.2) A minor point release to the popular monadic combinator library. [7] http://goo.gl/Gx6Y3 * knob (John Millikin) Allows creation of memory-backed handles. [8] http://goo.gl/Jq7kl Quotes of the Week * heatsink: Maybe, (), and Bool go to the Lone Star Bar. The bouncer stops Maybe and says, "we don't serve your kind here." * DanBurton: correction - there will always be a job for programmers to write code to share pictures of cats * quicksilver: what we need is an adapter package any-lens which uses whichever lens package is available then we get potentially the disadvantages of all, without being able to guarantee the advantages of any. * mauke: Go too considered harmful * ddarius: isJust :: Maybe a -> Bool; isJust = unsafeCoerce * ddarius: Well when people say you need a PhD to program Haskell, you can point out that SPJ doesn't have a PhD. Top Reddit Stories * Is Haskell the Cure? Domain: mathias-biilmann.net, Score: 60, Comments: 60 On Reddit: [9] http://goo.gl/d84BE Original: [10] http://goo.gl/wMrH3 * Writing Functions With Many Nameless Parameters Domain: blog.atnnn.com, Score: 41, Comments: 6 On Reddit: [11] http://goo.gl/nLyGE Original: [12] http://goo.gl/uQkke * Want to help with the new hackage server? Jump in now... Domain: haskell.org, Score: 37, Comments: 0 On Reddit: [13] http://goo.gl/kV1gk Original: [14] http://goo.gl/i2Hbk * Slides from my talk on benchmarking and other random topics at IFL Domain: slideshare.net, Score: 32, Comments: 14 On Reddit: [15] http://goo.gl/SKJuH Original: [16] http://goo.gl/zRTwy * "OCaml For the Masses" article on Slashdot Domain: developers.slashdot.org, Score: 30, Comments: 49 On Reddit: [17] http://goo.gl/isVQ3 Original: [18] http://goo.gl/wlKaa * WebSockets support for WAI/Warp/Yesod: Thanks to Jasper's awesome work Domain: github.com, Score: 27, Comments: 6 On Reddit: [19] http://goo.gl/bpjUC Original: [20] http://goo.gl/bpjUC * A good explanation of the fixed point combinator in Haskell Domain: playingwithpointers.com, Score: 25, Comments: 9 On Reddit: [21] http://goo.gl/C8JmY Original: [22] http://goo.gl/zZnDO * ANNOUNCE: knob, a library for memory-backed handles Domain: haskell.org, Score: 24, Comments: 9 On Reddit: [23] http://goo.gl/JicDL Original: [24] http://goo.gl/xO2tY * HaTeX 3 is out! Domain: deltadiaz.blogspot.com, Score: 23, Comments: 17 On Reddit: [25] http://goo.gl/PVB9h Original: [26] http://goo.gl/aK8Tl * What should I use for web programming? Domain: self.haskell, Score: 22, Comments: 30 On Reddit: [27] http://goo.gl/74r1H Original: [28] http://goo.gl/74r1H * Practice for helping Java & C++ programmers learn Haskell: read programs with them, out loud Domain: cliffordbeshers.blogspot.com, Score: 21, Comments: 4 On Reddit: [29] http://goo.gl/6Cf2o Original: [30] http://goo.gl/P1pD1 * Creative partner request from a Haskell course's message board Domain: imgur.com, Score: 19, Comments: 5 On Reddit: [31] http://goo.gl/ZVWjs Original: [32] http://goo.gl/zW5Yf Top StackOverflow Questions * Clean and type-safe state machine implementation in a statically typed language? votes: 17, answers: 11 Read on SO: [33] http://goo.gl/GRI9p * What happens if an Enumerator tries to consume input? votes: 16, answers: 1 Read on SO: [34] http://goo.gl/bnTJD * Are there type signatures which Haskell can't verify? votes: 11, answers: 2 Read on SO: [35] http://goo.gl/0rfQe * Comparision of enumerator vs. iteratee package votes: 11, answers: 1 Read on SO: [36] http://goo.gl/iR9E1 * Will a value that has a type with class constraints actually be a function at run time? votes: 10, answers: 4 Read on SO: [37] http://goo.gl/o4zDC * Overloading (+) votes: 9, answers: 2 Read on SO: [38] http://goo.gl/Muxre * Strange type error in Haskell let-expression — what's the issue? votes: 9, answers: 3 Read on SO: [39] http://goo.gl/gKLSX * Haskell type declarations in 'where' — what's going on? votes: 8, answers: 2 Read on SO: [40] http://goo.gl/YIydy * Why is `http` in http-enumerator an Iteratee? votes: 8, answers: 1 Read on SO: [41] http://goo.gl/y3qQA * How to check for haskell package versions in ./configure? votes: 8, answers: 5 Read on SO: [42] http://goo.gl/o4EIu * Polynomial factorization in Haskell votes: 8, answers: 2 Read on SO: [43] http://goo.gl/nca2Z Until next time, Daniel Santa Cruz References 1. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/92911 2. http://www.mail-archive.com/haskell-cafe@haskell.org/msg93759.html 3. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.yesod/503 4. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/92871 5. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/92836 6. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/92908 7. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/18972 8. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/18974 9. http://mathias-biilmann.net/posts/2011/10/is-haskell-the-cure 10. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/kza1y/is_haskell_the_cure/ 11. http://blog.atnnn.com/p/writing-haskell-functions-with-many-nameless-parame… 12. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/kz8gx/writing_functions_with_many_… 13. http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/cabal-devel/2011-October/007803.html 14. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l3zye/want_to_help_with_the_new_ha… 15. http://www.slideshare.net/bos31337/pronk-like-you-mean-it 16. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l04nj/slides_from_my_talk_on_bench… 17. http://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/10/04/1557206/ocaml-for-the-masses 18. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l1jyt/ocaml_for_the_masses_article… 19. https://github.com/yesodweb/wai/blob/master/wai-websockets/Network/Wai/Hand… 20. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l2421/websockets_support_for_waiwa… 21. http://playingwithpointers.com/archives/590 22. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l4gmb/a_good_explanation_of_the_fi… 23. http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/2011-October/095896.html 24. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l5mwt/announce_knob_a_library_for_… 25. http://deltadiaz.blogspot.com/2011/10/hatex-3-first-release.html 26. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l38md/hatex_3_is_out/ 27. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l0fne/what_should_i_use_for_web_pr… 28. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l0fne/what_should_i_use_for_web_pr… 29. http://cliffordbeshers.blogspot.com/2011/10/conalelliott-re-what-resources.… 30. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l0k0w/practice_for_helping_java_c_… 31. http://imgur.com/mTxC4 32. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/l3ah1/creative_partner_request_fro… 33. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7699912/clean-and-type-safe-state-machin… 34. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7683408/what-happens-if-an-enumerator-tr… 35. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7644658/are-there-type-signatures-which-… 36. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7674594/comparision-of-enumerator-vs-ite… 37. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7659845/will-a-value-that-has-a-type-wit… 38. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7646624/overloading 39. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7662937/strange-type-error-in-haskell-le… 40. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7635720/haskell-type-declarations-in-whe… 41. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7638326/why-is-http-in-http-enumerator-a… 42. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7645823/how-to-check-for-haskell-package… 43. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7687792/polynomial-factorization-in-hask…

1 0

ANN: global-variables-1.0
by Jean-Marie Gaillourdet 12 Oct '11

12 Oct '11

Hi, I am pleased to announce the first public release of global-variables. A package providing a global namespace for IORefs, MVars, and TVars. Hackage URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/global-variables-1.0 Source: http://bitbucket.org/jmg/global-variables/ Description: ---------------- 'Data.Global' provides a global namespace of 'IORef's, 'MVar's and 'TVar's. This namespace may be accessed in pure code. Yet reading and writing to those 'IORef's, 'MVar's and 'TVar's happens still in their respective monads. 'Data.Global' is designed to meet the following use cases: * Simplify the declaration of top-level mutable variables, by avoiding any pragmas as well as 'unsafePerformIO'. * Avoid having to pass references explicitly throughout the program in order to let distant parts communicate. * Enable a communication by convention scheme, where e.g. different libraries may communicate without code dependencies. * Simplify the "configuration problem" - at least for code in the IO monad. Note, that this library does not encourage sloppy software design by re-introducing all bad effects of global variables. Nevertheless, sometimes global variables are a suitable solution to a problem. In that case "Data.Global" simplifies and extends their handling significantly. Example: ------------- > module Main where > > import Data.Global > import Data.IORef > > counter :: IORef Int > counter = declareIORef "Main.counter" 0 > > main :: IO () > main = do > counter `writeIORef` 1 > readIORef counter >>= print Note absence of pragmas and of unsafePerformIO! Future Plans: ------------------ * Support discovery/traversal of existing variables * TemplateHaskell support to generate private and unique variable names. Regards, Jean

1 0

Chalmers FP is hiring 2 Assistant Professors in Functional Programming: deadline 2011-10-18
by John Hughes 12 Oct '11

12 Oct '11

We're recruiting Assistant Professors to the FP group for our new Strategic Research project "RAW FP". Come and work with us! Two-body problem? We've got two jobs! Deadline coming up on the 18th. John Hughes http://wiki.portal.chalmers.se/cse/pmwiki.php/FP/FP https://site1.reachmee.com/I003/chalmers/ENG/vacdetail.aspx?commadseqno=142… 2 Assistant Professors in Functional Programming The Functional Programming group at Chalmers University is seeking two outstanding young researchers for four year Assistant Professor positions Ref 2011/231. Group description Functional programming is enjoying an unprecedented surge of interest, with languages such as Erlang, Scala and Haskell seeing high-profile applications in companies large and small. A major reason is the much improved productivity that software developers can enjoy, by adopting functional programming. With intense competition from emerging economies, productivity improvements are vital if the West is to retain its software industry. We have secured a large, five-year strategic research grant to bring these benefits to two new areas: signal processing and low-level control in the system layer of products such as radio base stations for mobile broadband, and real-time automotive software built around the AUTOSAR standard. Our approach is to combine domain-specific languages embedded in Haskell or Erlang with rapid verification based on property-based testing (QuickCheck) and automated proof tools. Our work is carried out in close cooperation with industry, and has the potential to make a real impact in key industrial sectors. Our group is a leading centre of functional programming research, the source of the QuickCheck testing tool (awarded Most Influential Paper of ICFP 2000 by ACM SIGPLAN), the Equinox theorem prover and Paradox model finder, and of domain specific languages like Lava and the Feldspar signal-processing language (embedded in Haskell, funded by Ericsson, the world's largest supplier of radio base stations). We combine strong links to industry with high academic standards, and thus receive funding from both basic and strategic research agencies. We are currently four professors (Hughes, Sheeran, Claessen, Jansson), five postdocs, and eight doctoral students; our new strategic grant will fund a significant expansion and a stream of visiting international researchers. The proposal that attracted the funding for these positions is available at http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~ms/SSF10Final.pdf<http://www.cse.chalmers.se/%7Ems/SSF10Final.pdf> Although some changes have been made to the plan, the proposal gives a good indication of the research areas to which we expect successful candidates to contribute. Job description These are attractive four year full-time positions in one of the strongest Functional Programming groups anywhere. You will work at the cutting edge of research in Functional Programming, and will strengthen your qualifications, both for advancement in academia and for industrial research positions. After two years, progress will be assessed. After four years, an Assistant Professor who has been appointed in open competition may, under certain circumstances, be considered for appointment to a permanent position as Associate Professor. You will be expected to take part in teaching and masters project supervision (to a maximum of 25%) and also in doctoral student supervision. The working language in the research group is English. The undergraduates are normally taught in Swedish, but the graduate level teaching is in English. You will gain experience of grant proposal writing, as we strive to find funding for our long term research. You will most likely be involved in industrial collaboration. The positions are available from October 2011, although the start date is negotiable. Required qualifications We are looking for researchers with a strong record in functional programming research and practice, preferably related to domain specific languages, testing and/or automated reasoning. You should have a doctorate in computer science (normally completed at most five years before deadline for application), and ideally also post-doctoral experience. We have promised much in the above proposal, and you will be expected to help us to deliver! You should have a strong publication record for your academic age. We place particular emphasis on the communication of research results and the quality of your writing will strongly influence our assessment of you. Please make sure to include your three best papers in your application. Application procedure The application shall be marked with Ref 2011/231 and written in English. The application shall be sent electronically and be attached as three pdf-files, as below: 1. Application: - a first page containing name, reference number 2011/231 and a list of all documents that have been enclosed, - description of the applicant's research and pedagogical qualifications, as well as other qualifications, - CV, - complete list of publications, - plans for future work within the area of the announced position, both scientific and educational, if appointed, - two reference persons who can be contacted by Chalmers (describe association with them and give their contact addresses). 2. letter of application detailing your specific qualifications for the position. 3. Publications: - copies of the applicant's best scientific publications (not more than 5), - copies of a maximum of 5 other publications (such as pedagogy, and popular science) in support of pedagogical and other merits. The application should be sent electronically. Please use the button at the foot of the page to reach the application form. The files may be compressed (zipped). Application deadline: 2011-10-18 For questions, please contact: Professor John Hughes, rjmh(a)chalmers.se<mailto:rjmh@chalmers.se> Professor Mary Sheeran, ms(a)chalmers.se<mailto:ms@chalmers.se> Department level: Head of the Department, Catarina Coquand, catarina.coquand(a)chalmers.se<mailto:catarina.coquand@chalmers.se> All reachable via Chalmers exchange: +46 31 772 10 00 Chalmers University of Technology conducts research and education in engineering sciences, architecture, technology-related mathematical sciences, natural and nautical sciences - in close collaboration with industry and society. The strategy for scientific excellence focuses our eight Areas of Advance; Built Environment, Energy, Information- & Communication Technology, Life Science, Materials Science, Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Production and Transport. The aim is to make an active contribution to a sustainable future using the basic sciences as a foundation and innovation and entrepreneurship as central driving forces. Chalmers has about 11,000 students and 2,500 employees. New knowledge and improved technology has characterised Chalmers since its foundation in 1829 in accordance with the testament of William Chalmers, and his motto: Avancez! www.chalmers.se/en<http://www.chalmers.se/en>

1 0

ANNOUNCE: knob, a library for memory-backed handles
by John Millikin 09 Oct '11

09 Oct '11

http://hackage.haskell.org/package/knob This is a small package which allows you to create memory-backed handles. I found it as a pattern in a few of my test suites, so I spent a day or so polishing it up before posting it to the internet. Feel free to play around with it and tell me about any issues that pop up, or things you wish it could do. The interface is very simple; here's a taste: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- import Data.ByteString (pack) import Data.Knob import System.IO main = do -- for this example, we'll start with an empty knob knob <- newKnob (pack []) -- write to it withFileHandle knob "test.txt" WriteMode $ \h -> do hPutStrLn h "Hello world!" bytes <- Data.Knob.getContents knob putStrLn ("Wrote bytes: " ++ show bytes) -- read from it withFileHandle knob "test.txt" ReadMode $ \h -> do line <- hGetLine h putStrLn ("Got line: " ++ show line) --------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Call for Contributions - Haskell Communities and Activities Report, November 2011 edition
by Janis Voigtländer 08 Oct '11

08 Oct '11

Dear all, I would like to collect contributions for the 21st edition of the ================================================================ Haskell Communities & Activities Report http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell_Communities_and_Activities_Report Submission deadline: 1 November 2011 (please send your contributions to hcar at haskell.org, in plain text or LaTeX format) ================================================================ This is the short story: * If you are working on any project that is in some way related to Haskell, please write a short entry and submit it. Even if the project is very small or unfinished or you think it is not important enough --- please reconsider and submit an entry anyway! * If you are interested in an existing project related to Haskell that has not previously been mentioned in the HCAR, please tell me, so that I can contact the project leaders and ask them to submit an entry. * Feel free to pass on this call for contributions to others that might be interested. More detailed information: The Haskell Communities & Activities Report is a bi-annual overview of the state of Haskell as well as Haskell-related projects over the last, and possibly the upcoming six months. If you have only recently been exposed to Haskell, it might be a good idea to browse the May 2011 edition --- you will find interesting topics described as well as several starting points and links that may provide answers to many questions. Contributions will be collected until the submission deadline. They will then be compiled into a coherent report that is published online as soon as it is ready. As always, this is a great opportunity to update your webpages, make new releases, announce or even start new projects, or to talk about developments you want every Haskeller to know about! Looking forward to your contributions, Janis (current editor) FAQ: Q: What format should I write in? A: The required format is a LaTeX source file, adhering to the template that is available at: http://haskell.org/communities/11-2011/template.tex There is also a LaTeX style file at http://haskell.org/communities/11-2011/hcar.sty that you can use to preview your entry. If you do not know LaTeX, then use plain text. If you modify an old entry that you have written for an earlier edition of the report, you should already have received your old entry as a template (provided I have your valid email address). Please modify that template, rather than using your own version of the old entry as a template. Q: Can I include Haskell code? A: Yes. Please consider using lhs2tex syntax (http://people.cs.uu.nl/andres/lhs2tex/) The report is compiled in mode polycode.fmt. Q: Can I include images? A: Yes, you are even encouraged to do so. Please use .jpg format, then. Q: Should I send files in .zip archives or similar? A: No, plain file attachements are the way. If you have several entries to submit, it helps if you send them in separate emails. Q: How much should I write? A: Authors are asked to limit entries to about one column of text. This corresponds to approximately one page, or 40 lines of text, with the above style and template. A general introduction is helpful. Apart from that, you should focus on recent or upcoming developments. Pointers to online content can be given for more comprehensive or "historic" overviews of a project. Images do not count towards the length limit, so you may want to use this opportunity to pep up entries. There is no minimum length of an entry! The report aims for being as complete as possible, so please consider writing an entry, even if it is only a few lines long. Q: Which topics are relevant? A: All topics which are related to Haskell in some way are relevant. We usually had reports from users of Haskell (private, academic, or commercial), from authors or contributors to projects related to Haskell, from people working on the Haskell language, libraries, on language extensions or variants. We also like reports about distributions of Haskell software, Haskell infrastructure, books and tutorials on Haskell. Reports on past and upcoming events related to Haskell are also relevant. Finally, there might be new topics we do not even think about. As a rule of thumb: if in doubt, then it probably is relevant and has a place in the HCAR. You can also ask the editor. Q: Is unfinished work relevant? Are ideas for projects relevant? A: Yes! You can use the HCAR to talk about projects you are currently working on. You can use it to look for other developers that might help you. You can use it to write "wishlist" items for libraries and language features you would like to see implemented. Q: If I do not update my entry, but want to keep it in the report, what should I do? A: Tell the editor that there are no changes. The old entry will typically be reused in this case, but it might be dropped if it is older than a year, to give more room and more attention to projects that change a lot. Do not resend complete entries if you have not changed them.

1 0

ANNOUNCE: Parsec 3.1.2
by Antoine Latter 08 Oct '11

08 Oct '11

Parsec is a monadic combinator library that is well-documented, simple to use, and produces good error messages. This is a minor point release over Parsec 3.1.1. The changes in this release are: >From Roman Cheplyaka: - 'lookAhead' no longer counts as 'consuming input', even when it succeeds. - Fixes for 'try' related to error position reporting - Fix for merging error messages Other changes: - Fix reserved name recognition for case-insensitive languages - Add instances for 'Stream Text' (both lazy Text and strict Text), allowing Char parsers to run on the Text type. Link on Hackage: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/parsec-3.1.2 Notes: The new instances are orphaned in their own new modules, so there shouldn't be conflicts for projects defining their own orphan instances. Thanks to: Roman Cheplyaka for development, Andrew U. Frank for a bug report. Antoine

1 0

CAV 2012: Call For Workshops
by CAV 2012 CFP 08 Oct '11

08 Oct '11

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ***** CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ******* 24th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification CAV 2012 July 7-13, 2012 Berkeley, California, USA Workshop Chair: Shuvendu Lahiri (Microsoft Research, Redmond) The 2012 Computer-Aided Verification (CAV) Workshops provide an opportunity for participants to discuss topics in the broader verification related domains. CAV 2012 Workshops will be held before the main conference on July 7 and 8. Workshop proposals will be reviewed by the Workshop chair along with the program chairs and members of the steering committee. Proposals must consist of the following two parts: -- Part I: Technical Information -- A short (about 1 page) scientific justification of the proposed topic, its significance and relevance to CAV, and the particular benefits of the workshop to the verification community, as well as a list of previous or related workshops (if relevant). -- Part II: Organizational Information -- - contact information of the workshop organizers - identifying a main contact for the workshop (i.e. a workshop chair) - the desired length of the workshop, (one or two days) - estimate of the audience size - proposed format and agenda (for example, demo sessions, tutorials, etc.) - potential invited speakers - procedures for selecting papers and participants - plans for dissemination, if any (for example, special issues of journals) - special technical, AV, or USB stick needs - links to a preliminary website of the workshop and call for papers (if possible) - information if workshop has been previously held Important Dates: Proposals are due by Nov 10th, 2011 by email to the Workshop chair. Organizers will be notified by Nov 20th, 2011. The workshop proposals will be reviewed and evaluated on the following criteria: * Potential to advance state of the art in verification technologies, especially ability to break new ground. * Relevance to CAV. * Overlap of topics with other proposed workshops. * Past-successes of the workshop and association with previous CAV conferences. * Organizers' ability and experience to lead a successful workshop. All accepted workshops will be asked to provide a webpage, call for papers, and list of invited speakers. The workshop participants will be required to register for the workshop through the CAV main registration page. The registration rates for workshops will be set by CAV organizers in consultation with the workshop organizers, following rate structures similar to (but not the same as) those followed in the past. The workshop organizers are strongly encouraged to seek external funding and sponsorships. For further enquiries or information, please contact: Shuvendu Lahiri (CAV2012 Workshop Chair) Microsoft Research, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052, USA Phone: 1-425-722-4122 email: shuvendu AT microsoft.com http: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/shuvendu/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0