== hs-plugins-0.09.2, dynamically loaded plugins in Haskell == Release early, release often is the way to go. This is the first src release of <hs-plugins>, a library for compiling and loading Haskell plugins in Haskell. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/hs-plugins/ The library allows an application to compile and load a Haskell source file, and then run the code therein. The inspiration and foundation of hs-plugins based on Andre Pang's original runtime_loader code and GHCi binding. hs-plugins provides this functionality, along with layers of abstraction on top, as well as a 'make' mechanism to recompile plugins whose source has changed, and the following features: - runtime compilation and re-compilation of plugins - runtime loading of object files - automatic *dependency* loading of object files, based on .hi info - unload/reloading of object files - a mechanism to merge the abstract syntax of a plugin with a syntax stub, to factor out common/necessary declarations. This is to help out EDSL programmers - many examples, and a simple build system An example plugin, potentially written by a non-programmer: resource = plugin { function = reverse } An example application: import Plugins import API main = do make "Plugin.hs" [] (m,v) <- load "Plugins.o" "." "resource" putStrLn $ (function v) "hello" will print "olleh" You'll probably need GHC 6.2 or greater. This is a GHCi specific library, and will only work on platforms with a functional GHCi implementation. It is also BSD make friendly ;) The original inspiration was to provide a typesafe config language to replace configuration files for new applications (a muttrc and vimrc killer...) Haskell EDSLs and dynloaded plugins suit this quite fine, and the library is suited for EDSL purposes in general, I think. Feedback *very* welcome. Enjoy! -- Don