February 2012 - Haskell

SURVEY: hledger, shelltestrunner, rss2irc, FunGEn usage 2012
by Simon Michael 24 Feb '12

24 Feb '12

Hey all, I'm gathering usage data on my main FOSS projects, to help me prioritize and steer them. I've prepared a short survey, 10 optional questions that should take 1-5 minutes per project. If you use any of these projects and/or would like them to continue, you can help a lot by adding your experience to: hledger: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHVGUHBXRUhRNWF3Y2RsZG… shelltestrunner: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGpZSzdhWHlCUkJpR2hjX1… rss2irc (& hackagebot): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFhhLWZrZ3l4elFYa3M1Zm… FunGEn: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFN5dllFTGFFU3ZhclcxWT… Don't hold back! Honest critique welcome. You'll see a summary report after submitting your answers, and before long I'll follow up with the urls for full results. Note that contact info will be public, except that I'll keep email addresses private. It's optional but at least a little is quite useful in several ways. I made the survey generic, so feel free to re-use it. Best, -Simon

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CUFP 2012: Call for Presentations
by Stefan Wehr 24 Feb '12

24 Feb '12

COMMERCIAL USERS OF FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING 2012 CUFP 2012 http://cufp.org/conference CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS Copenhagen, Denmark Sep 13-15 Co-located with ICFP 2012 Sponsored by SIGPLAN Talk Proposal Submission Deadline 29 June 2012 The annual CUFP workshop is a place where people can see how others are using functional programming to solve real world problems; where practitioners meet and collaborate; where language designers and users can share ideas about the future of their favorite language; and where one can learn practical techniques and approaches for putting functional programming to work. Giving a CUFP Talk ================== If you have experience using functional languages in a practical setting, we invite you to submit a proposal to give a talk at the workshop. We're looking for two kinds of talks: Experience reports are typically 25 minutes long, and aim to inform participants about how functional programming plays out in real-world applications, focusing especially on lessons learned and insights gained. Experience reports don't need to be highly technical; reflections on the commercial, management, or software engineering aspects are, if anything, more important. Technical talks are also 25 minutes long, and should focus on teaching the audience something about a particular technique or methodology, from the point of view of someone who has seen it play out in practice. These talks could cover anything from techniques for building functional concurrent applications, to managing dynamic reconfigurations, to design recipes for using types effectively in large-scale applications. While these talks will often be based on a particular language, they should be accessible to a broad range of programmers. If you are interested in offering a talk, or nominating someone to do so, send an e-mail to sperber(at)deinprogramm(dot)de or avsm2(at)cl(dot)cam(dot)ac(dot)uk by 29 June 2012 with a short description of what you'd like to talk about or what you think your nominee should give a talk about. Such descriptions should be about one page long. There will be a short scribes report of the presentations and discussions but not of the details of individual talks, as the meeting is intended to be more a discussion forum than a technical interchange. You do not need to submit a paper, just a proposal for your talk! Program Committee ================= Mike Sperber (Active Group), co-chair Anil Madhavapeddy (University of Cambridge), co-chair Ashish Agarwal (New York University) Thomas Arts (QuviQ AB) Chris Houser (LonoCloud) Tomas Petricek (University of Cambridge) Heiko Seeberger (Typesafe) Stefan Wehr (factis research) Noel Welsh (untyped) More information ================ For more information on CUFP, including videos of presentations from previous years, take a look at the CUFP website at http://cufp.org. Note that presenters, like other attendees, will need to register for the event. Presentations will be video taped and presenters will be expected to sign an ACM copyright release form. Acceptance and rejection letters will be sent out by July 16th. Guidance on giving a great CUFP talk ==================================== Focus on the interesting bits: Think about what will distinguish your talk, and what will engage the audience, and focus there. There are a number of places to look for those interesting bits. Setting: FP is pretty well established in some areas, including formal verification, financial processing and server-side web-services. An unusual setting can be a source of interest. If you're deploying FP-based mobile UIs or building servers on oil rigs, then the challenges of that scenario are worth focusing on. Did FP help or hinder in adapting to the setting? Technology: The CUFP audience is hungry to learn about how FP techniques work in practice. What design patterns have you applied, and to what areas? Did you use functional reactive programming for user interfaces, or DSLs for playing chess, or fault-tolerant actors for large scale geological data processing? Teach us something about the techniques you used, and why we should consider using them ourselves. Getting things done: How did you deal with large software development in the absence of a myriad of pre-existing support that are often expected in larger commercial environments (IDEs, coverage tools, debuggers, profilers) and without larger, proven bodies of libraries? Did you hit any brick walls that required support from the community? Don't just be a cheerleader: It's easy to write a rah-rah talk about how well FP worked for you, but CUFP is more interesting when the talks also spend time on what doesn't work. Even when the results were all great, you should spend more time on the challenges along the way than on the parts that went smoothly.

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ANN: cabal-file-th-0.2.2
by Simon Michael 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

I have uploaded a new version of cabal-file-th which bumps the Cabal upper bound to avoid difficulties with GHC 7.4. Best - Simon

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ANNOUNCE: Disciple Core Interpreter 0.2.1
by Ben Lippmeier 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

The Disciplined Disciple Compiler (DDC) is being stripped down, cleaned and rebuilt with 100% less known bugs and unfortunate holes. The first pieces are now ready for human consumption, namely a new core language and interpreter for it. There is a tutorial including Hackage links here: http://disciple.ouroborus.net/wiki/Tutorial/Core Read more about the project on the wiki: http://disciple.ouroborus.net/ Cheers, Ben.

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Haskell Weekly News: Issue 216
by Daniel Santa Cruz 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

Welcome to issue 216 of the HWN, a newsletter covering crowdsourced links for the Haskell community. This release covers the week of February 12 to 18, 2012. You can find the HTML version at: http://contemplatecode.blogspot.com/2012/02/haskell-weekly-news-issue-216.h… Quotes of the Week * monochrom: the selfish program's motive is to fool the programmer * WilliamByrd: Oleg is an emissary from some advanced alien race. Working with him is both exhausting and enlightening. * CodeWeaverX: do-block, or do-not-block. There is no try-catch-block. Top Reddit Stories * Where is Hackage 2.0? Domain: self.haskell, Score: 66, Comments: 42 On Reddit: [1] http://goo.gl/uXq10 Original: [2] http://goo.gl/uXq10 * Haskell Performance Patters [HTML slideshow] Domain: blog.johantibell.com, Score: 52, Comments: 13 On Reddit: [3] http://goo.gl/Y5tCb Original: [4] http://goo.gl/T9zZI * Concatenative, Row-Polymorphic Programming in Haskell (re: Why Concatenative Programming Matters) Domain: github.com, Score: 41, Comments: 21 On Reddit: [5] http://goo.gl/0w83b Original: [6] http://goo.gl/aw22p * Neil Mitchell - Shake: A Better Make Domain: neilmitchell.blogspot.com, Score: 37, Comments: 7 On Reddit: [7] http://goo.gl/MeFQ1 Original: [8] http://goo.gl/4HM0d * Why concatenative programming matters. Domain: evincarofautumn.blogspot.com, Score: 37, Comments: 23 On Reddit: [9] http://goo.gl/Udpdt Original: [10] http://goo.gl/VvUvt * GSOC 2012 Project Proposal - GHCi in the web browser Domain: apfelmus.nfshost.com, Score: 36, Comments: 34 On Reddit: [11] http://goo.gl/KS6d8 Original: [12] http://goo.gl/epgTZ * Yesod Blog :: Call for GSoC: expand the reach of Haskell with interactive websites and good persistence Domain: yesodweb.com, Score: 31, Comments: 20 On Reddit: [13] http://goo.gl/1HQ9d Original: [14] http://goo.gl/bxKIC * hxournal - A pen notetaking program written in Haskell Domain: ianwookim.org, Score: 25, Comments: 16 On Reddit: [15] http://goo.gl/4UG5E Original: [16] http://goo.gl/kQOMh * Type checking by theorem proving in IDRIS: Brady [pdf, 29 slides] Domain: cs.st-andrews.ac.uk, Score: 25, Comments: 33 On Reddit: [17] http://goo.gl/qAD5L Original: [18] http://goo.gl/mhdlC * Using Lawvere theories to combine effects Domain: blog.sigfpe.com, Score: 24, Comments: 0 On Reddit: [19] http://goo.gl/4IHq7 Original: [20] http://goo.gl/QS1aO * BayHac '12 Domain: haskell.org, Score: 23, Comments: 0 On Reddit: [21] http://goo.gl/nuxUm Original: [22] http://goo.gl/NCQGy * Hope for Haskell: making Hackage and cabal-install more awesome Domain: github.com, Score: 22, Comments: 23 On Reddit: [23] http://goo.gl/E9MmZ Original: [24] http://goo.gl/sLpkp * Thoughts on Haskell Development Domain: self.haskell, Score: 21, Comments: 77 On Reddit: [25] http://goo.gl/Qdt4b Original: [26] http://goo.gl/Qdt4b * Relating Category Theory to Programming Language Theory - MathOverflow Domain: mathoverflow.net, Score: 21, Comments: 1 On Reddit: [27] http://goo.gl/wA9E2 Original: [28] http://goo.gl/6Ox5n * The Other Prelude — any activity here? It seems like a worthwhile project. Domain: haskell.org, Score: 18, Comments: 13 On Reddit: [29] http://goo.gl/j94fj Original: [30] http://goo.gl/kwGCm Top StackOverflow Questions * Covariance / Contravariance in Haskell? votes: 24, answers: 2 Read on SO: [31] http://goo.gl/wBjaP * Haskell for someone who already knows some category theory votes: 17, answers: 1 Read on SO: [32] http://goo.gl/ms4dE * Haskell libraries overview and their quality [closed] votes: 16, answers: 1 Read on SO: [33] http://goo.gl/H3Rwg * Haskell existential quantification in detail votes: 12, answers: 1 Read on SO: [34] http://goo.gl/uiJZG * Derivative Towers and how to use the vector-space package (haskell) votes: 11, answers: 1 Read on SO: [35] http://goo.gl/lkPEl * Why doesn't Scala have an IO Monad? votes: 10, answers: 1 Read on SO: [36] http://goo.gl/dyTte * How to let a function [a] -> [a] operate on [(a,Int)]? votes: 9, answers: 2 Read on SO: [37] http://goo.gl/Js3As * Speed up runhaskell votes: 9, answers: 4 Read on SO: [38] http://goo.gl/yc3qo * Unnecessary type juggling to define Data.Void (package “void” on Hackage)? votes: 8, answers: 1 Read on SO: [39] http://goo.gl/FCmyv * Lazy vs eager evaluation and double linked list building votes: 8, answers: 3 Read on SO: [40] http://goo.gl/Z55Og Until next time, Daniel Santa Cruz References 1. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/pn2oh/where_is_hackage_20/ 2. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/pn2oh/where_is_hackage_20/ 3. http://blog.johantibell.com/2012/02/slides-from-haskell-performance.html 4. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/pry5h/haskell_performance_patters_… 5. https://github.com/leonidas/codeblog/blob/master/2012/2012-02-17-concatenat… 6. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ptji8/concatenative_rowpolymorphic… 7. http://neilmitchell.blogspot.com/2012/02/shake-better-make.html 8. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/plv2b/neil_mitchell_shake_a_better… 9. http://evincarofautumn.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-concatenative-programming-m… 10. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/pmcav/why_concatenative_programmin… 11. http://apfelmus.nfshost.com/blog/2012/02/14-summer-of-code-proposal.html 12. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ppdgq/gsoc_2012_project_proposal_g… 13. http://www.yesodweb.com/blog/2012/02/call-for-gsoc-2012 14. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/pqudh/yesod_blog_call_for_gsoc_exp… 15. http://ianwookim.org/hxournal 16. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/por66/hxournal_a_pen_notetaking_pr… 17. http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~eb/writings/idris-stp.pdf 18. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/pp6i3/type_checking_by_theorem_pro… 19. http://blog.sigfpe.com/2012/02/using-lawvere-theories-to-combine.html 20. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/pm46y/using_lawvere_theories_to_co… 21. http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/BayHac2012 22. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/puzxx/bayhac_12/ 23. https://github.com/DanBurton/Blog/blob/master/Markdown/Hope.md 24. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/pswbp/hope_for_haskell_making_hack… 25. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ppf7p/thoughts_on_haskell_developm… 26. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ppf7p/thoughts_on_haskell_developm… 27. http://mathoverflow.net/questions/4235/relating-category-theory-to-programm… 28. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/put1g/relating_category_theory_to_… 29. http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/The_Other_Prelude 30. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/ppwst/the_other_prelude_any_activi… 31. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9302739/covariance-contravariance-in-has… 32. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9252488/haskell-for-someone-who-already-… 33. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9286799/haskell-libraries-overview-and-t… 34. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9259921/haskell-existential-quantificati… 35. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9313994/derivative-towers-and-how-to-use… 36. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9345008/why-doesnt-scala-have-an-io-monad 37. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9324862/how-to-let-a-function-a-a-operat… 38. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9326097/speed-up-runhaskell 39. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9261490/unnecessary-type-juggling-to-def… 40. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9277176/lazy-vs-eager-evaluation-and-dou…

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Job Opportunity: PhD position at Utrecht University on analysis of functional languages
by Jurriaan Hage 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

Hello Haskellers, I have the following job opening for a PhD student. Maybe it is something for some of you. Please pass it on to anyone who might be interested. Apologies if you happen to receive this mail multiple times. best regards, Jurriaan Hage ============================================================== VACANCY : 1x Phd Student in type and effect systems for functional languages ============================================================== The research group of Software Technology at Utrecht University focuses its research on programming methodologies, compiler construction, and program analysis, validation, and verification. For more about us, see: http://www.cs.uu.nl/wiki/Center Financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), we currently have a job opening for: * 1x PhD researcher (Ph D student) Software Technology The topic of the project is to further investigate the notion of higher-ranked polyvariance within the context of type based static analysis of higher-order (functional) languages. Type and effect systems for functional languages employ the underlying type system of a language to implement various other analyses, e.g., dead-code analysis and strictness analysis. These are designed by annotating the underlying types with information concerning the analysis in question. Higher-ranked polyvariance is a level of precision for such annotations inspired by higher-ranked type systems. Full inference of the latter is known to be undecidable, but this is, surprisingly maybe, not the case for higher-ranked polyvariance. More details can be found in the following paper, published at ICFP 2010: http://www.cs.uu.nl/wiki/pub/Hage/PublicationList/holdermans10polyvariant.p… There remain many open questions about higher-ranked polyvariance. For example, can validating analyses such as Kennedy's dimension analysis be treated similarly? Can we show that adding higher-ranked types to a resource analysis yields a beneficial higher level of precision? (This work will be done in collaboration with others, including Kevin Hammond of St. Andrews.) Can we extend our work to a richer type language? Is it possible to selectively analyze programs higher-ranked polyvariantly? The candidate is expected to address these questions, communicate the results academically, to present the work at scientific conferences, to supervise Master students, and to assist in teaching courses at Bachelor or Master level. --------------------------------- What we are looking for --------------------------------- The candidate should have an MSc in Computer Science, be highly motivated, speak and write English very well, and be proficient in producing scientific reports. Knowledge of and experience with at least one of the following two areas is essential: * static program analysis, and type and effect systems in particular * functional programming, and Haskell in particular Furthermore, we expect the candidate to be able to reason formally. Experience in compiler construction, the practical use of theorem provers, and algorithmic complexity are expected to be useful in this project. --------------------------------- What we offer --------------------------------- The candidate is offered a full-time position for four years. The salary is supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. In addition we offer: a pension scheme, a partially paid parental leave, flexible employment conditions. Conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities. The research group will provide the candidate with necessary support on all aspects of the project. More information is available on the website: http://www.uu.nl/EN/informationfor/jobseekers/Working-for-Utrecht-Universit… The gross salary is in the range between € 2,042 and € 2,612 gross per month. We aim to start September 1, 2012 at the latest, but preferably sooner. --------------------------------- In order to apply --------------------------------- To apply please attach a letter of motivation, a curriculum vitae, and (email) addresses of two referees. Make sure to also include a transcript of the courses you have followed (at bachelor and master level), with the grades you obtained, and to include a sample of your scientific writing, e.g., the pdf of your master thesis. It is possible to apply for this position if you are close to obtaining your Master's. In that case include a letter of your supervisor with an estimate of your progress, and do not forget to include at least a sample of your technical writing skills. Application closes on the 21st March 2012. Visit http://www.cs.uu.nl/vacatures/en/200946.html and from there follow the link to the official job application page. --------------- Contact person --------------- For further information you can direct your inquiries to: Dr. Jurriaan Hage Phone: (+31) 30 253 3283 e-mail: J.Hage(a)uu.nl. website: http://www.cs.uu.nl/wiki/Hage/WebHome

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Six Prize PhD Studentships at the University of St Andrews
by Kevin Hammond 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

The School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews has six prize PhD studentships available. These studentships are funded through the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance and provide both fees and maintenance (£13,500) per annum. They can be taken up by students of any nationality (including non-EU students). Good students who are interested in PhD study in functional programming should please contact me (kh(a)cs.st-andrews.ac.uk) urgently. Deadline: March 1st 2012. Full details of the scheme at: http://blogs.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/csblog/2011/11/17/funded-research-students… Further information about my research at http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~kh Best Wishes, Kevin -------- Kevin Hammond, Professor of Computer Science, University of St Andrews T: +44-1334 463241 F: +44-1334-463278 W: http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~kh In accordance with University policy on electronic mail, this email reflects the opinions of the individual concerned, may contain confidential or copyright information that should not be copied or distributed without permission, may be of a private or personal nature unless explicitly indicated otherwise, and should not under any circumstances be taken as an official statement of University policy or procedure (see http://www.st-and.ac.uk) The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland : No SC013532

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ANNOUNCE: netspec-0.2.0.0
by Dan Burton 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

The examples are currently written in a fairly brittle style (they assume no exceptions, uninterrupted connection, etc). Recommendations to beef up both the examples and the safety of the framework in general would be greatly appreciated. https://github.com/DanBurton/netspec/tree/master/examples -- Dan Burton danburton.email(a)gmail.com On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 7:11 PM, Dan Burton <danburton.email(a)gmail.com>wrote: > Haskellers, > > I'm pleased to announce the first public release of NetSpec, a little > Network library to simplify networking tasks that involve a fixed number of > connections, using Erlang-esque send and receive primitives. > > Check out the docs: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/netspec > And the repo on github (with examples): > https://github.com/DanBurton/netspec > > -- > Dan Burton > > _______________________________________________ > Haskell mailing list > Haskell(a)haskell.org > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell > >

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(no subject)
by Dan Burton 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

Haskellers, I'm pleased to announce the first public release of NetSpec, a little Network library to simplify networking tasks that involve a fixed number of connections, using Erlang-esque send and receive primitives. Check out the docs: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/netspec And the repo on github (with examples): https://github.com/DanBurton/netspec -- Dan Burton

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Second Monad.Reader #20 call for copy
by Edward Z. Yang 21 Feb '12

21 Feb '12

Second Call for Copy: The Monad.Reader - Issue 20 ------------------------------------------------- Whether you're an established academic or have only just started learning Haskell, if you have something to say, please consider writing an article for The Monad.Reader! The submission deadline for Issue 20 will be: **Monday, March 5** The Monad.Reader ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Monad.Reader is a electronic magazine about all things Haskell. It is less formal than journal, but somehow more enduring than a wiki- page. There have been a wide variety of articles: exciting code fragments, intriguing puzzles, book reviews, tutorials, and even half-baked research ideas. Submission Details ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Get in touch with me if you intend to submit something -- the sooner you let me know what you're up to, the better. Please submit articles for the next issue to me by e-mail (ezyang(a)mit.edu) Articles should be written according to the guidelines available from http://themonadreader.wordpress.com/contributing/ Please submit your article in PDF, together with any source files you used. The sources will be released together with the magazine under a BSD license. If you would like to submit an article, but have trouble with LaTeX please let me know and we'll work something out.

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