- Libraries - Haskell.org

Re: First Attempt at Crypto Library
by Dominic Steinitz 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

I'm not sure where we are on the name for the proposed crypto library. Are we going for: Codec.Encryption.DES Codec.Encryption.RSA Codec.Encryption.Blowfish If so I'm not sure how modes such as Cipher Block Chaining (see below) fit in as they apply to all block ciphers. There is also the issue of padding schemes. Are we saying that there should be: Codec.Encryption.Modes Codec.Encryption.Padding I'm not sure what will happen when we add asymmetric algorithms but it seems ok for now. Should what Codec.Encryption.DES exports be des & unDes or should they be encrypt and decrypt? I presume the latter. -- * CBC or Cipher Block Chaining Mode -- | In CBC or Cipher Block Chaining mode each block is XORed with -- the previous enciphered block before encryption. For the first -- block we start with an initialization vector. cbc :: Bits block => (key -> block -> block) -> block -> key -> [block] -> [block] cbc e iv k ps = ciphers where ciphers = map (e k) feedIns feedIns = zipWith xor (iv : ciphers) ps Dominic Steinitz ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dominic Steinitz" <dominic.steinitz(a)blueyonder.co.uk> To: "Simon Peyton-Jones" <simonpj(a)microsoft.com>; "Simon Marlow" <simonmar(a)microsoft.com> Cc: <libraries-request(a)haskell.org> Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 6:46 PM Subject: First Attempt at Crypto Library > Simon, Simon, > > Here's my first attempt at a crypto library. It compiles and I can run a > test using ghc-inplace. The test checks with the example in > http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip81.htm (except I couldn't find an > example with PKCS#5 padding). I'm not sure what the next steps are. > > Dominic Steinitz >

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FW: Library infrastructure
by Simon Peyton-Jones 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

Gentle Haskellers Haskell has now got a decent, hierarchical module system, supported by GHC, Hugs and NHC, and the library structure is now quite well populated. For example, here are the "base" libraries shipped with GHC (similar libraries come with Hugs and Nhc): http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/base/index.html Languages flourish when libraries are plentiful, reliable, and well documented. In an open-source community like the Haskell community, plentiful libraries depend on contributions from the community. The difficulty is that it is currently not obvious what Joe Programmer should do to contribute a library to the community. I think this difficulty is a major obstacle to Haskell's progress, perhaps even the largest single obstacle today. One route to getting a library widely distributed is to get it into the "libraries" source tree used by GHC, Hugs, and NHC. That has the merit that the library will be distributed with each of these compilers. But it's too much of a "cathedral" approach. There is no way to distribute libraries between releases, and it makes the distributions ever larger and more complex for the GHC/Hugs/Nhc teams to build. To complement this, there ought to be an easy "bazaar" way for Joe Programmer to implement a library, build distributions, put them up on his web site for others to download, and add a link to some central library index so that people can find it. Sadly this is not an entirely simple task, because (a) the library should work on all Haskell implementations, and (b) should be packaged for binary installation on a variety of platforms (Windows, Linux, OpenBSD, Mac etc). Indeed, since GHC, Hugs and Nhc have different packaging mechanisms, there's a kind of (a)*(b) product involved. The bottom line is that today the obstacles are high enough to discourage all but the most motivated. What is needed is some kind of software infrastructure to automate the common tasks, and to give clear instructions about the non-automatable parts. This infrastructure should not be part of the (complicated) GHC (or Hugs, or Nhc) build systems; indeed, while it will certainly contain implementation-specific parts, its structure should be implementation independent. Simon Marlow emitted a message a while ago about this, but discussion petered out: http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/glasgow-haskell-users/2002-November/thr ead.html#4322 The lack of this library-building infrastructure is a serious problem. Solving it, or even partially solving it, would be a huge step forward. So this message is really to try to kick-start the process again. Is anyone willing to invest effort in making this happen? It's probably a task that is too big for one person. I think what we need is A library-infrastructure Czar, who will a) do the core design and implementation b) coordinate the whole thing to make sure progress happens A bunch of library-infrastructure Supporters, who are willing a) to contribute thoughtfully to the design b) to implement pieces of it, for example pieces specific to one implementation (e.g. GHC) or one target architecture (e.g. PowerPC) Perhaps the first thing to do is to assemble list of people who would be willing to contribute as supporters (in the above sense), hoping that a Czar may then emerge by popular acclaim. Would you like to reply, perhaps to the 'libraries(a)haskell.org' list, so indicate interest. I really think this is important. If we do not collectively evolve a way to develop libraries in "bazaar" mode, I think Haskell will at best develop more slowly, and at worst wither away. Simon PS1: This is all distinct from the question of library *content* --- that is, what the module name, discussion about the signature of the exported types and functions are --- which does seem be handled OK by the 'libraries' list. This message concerns library-building *infrastructure*. PS2: Another entirely-orthogonal question is where library source code *lives*. One possibility is to use the same CVS repository that GHC/Hugs/Nhc use for libraries, albeit in a separate subtree. Perhaps fptools/user-libs/joe-bloggs/*. Another possibility is SourceForge. Finding backed-up CVS space for source code is not a problem.

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RE: bug in hPutPS
by Simon Marlow 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

> In local.libraries, you wrote: > > hPutPS (at least as packaged in ghc 5.04.2--I haven't yet tried with > > 5.04.3) fails when given an empty string with the error: > > > > Action: hPutArray > > Handle: {loc=<stdout>,type=writable,binary=False,buffering=none} > > Reason: illegal buffer size 0 > > > > I guess maybe this is actually a bug in hPutArray (which I > know nothing > > about), but I'm sure that one should be able to output an > empty string. > > hPutArray with count = 0 probably shouldn't fail, I'll check this. > If generating an empty array in hPutPS is a bug I cannot tell. I just fixed this. Cheers, Simon

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bug in hPutPS
by David Roundy 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

hPutPS (at least as packaged in ghc 5.04.2--I haven't yet tried with 5.04.3) fails when given an empty string with the error: Action: hPutArray Handle: {loc=<stdout>,type=writable,binary=False,buffering=none} Reason: illegal buffer size 0 I guess maybe this is actually a bug in hPutArray (which I know nothing about), but I'm sure that one should be able to output an empty string. -- David Roundy http://www.abridgegame.org

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RE: FW: First Attempt at Crypto Library
by Simon Marlow 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

> > Since we already have a little hierarchy based on the > codec's purpose: > > Codec.Image (e.g. Codec.Image.Jpeg) > > Codec.Video (e.g. Codec.Video.Mpeg2) > > then how about adding > > Codec.Text (e.g. Codec.Text.Base64) > > because its role, like uuencoding, is to convert binary streams to > > 7-bit ASCII text i.e. transmissible by email. > > I would have thought Codec.Binary.Base64, since in the other > cases (Image > and Video), the name is for the content you wish to code, not > the format in > which it is encoded. e.g. Jpeg is a format for encoding an image in > binary, while xpm is a format for encoding an image as text, > but both would go under Codec.Image. I initially thought along these lines, but then concluded that it's not that simple (or at least, that's not the only interpretation of the classification). For example, Jpeg is a coding system which encodes raw binary image data into jpeg image data: both the source and encoded result are image data, and they're both binary. So the term 'Image' refers to the purpose of the codec, not the source or destination format. Looking at it this way, 'Text' is a reasonable classification for a codec that encodes arbitrary raw binary data into ascii text: the purpose of the codec is to generate text. Ok, it's a little bit flimsy, but IMHO better than Codec.Binary which doesn't tell you anything: most codecs take binary input. Cheers, Simon

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Re: FW: Library infrastructure
by Yoann Padioleau 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

"Simon Peyton-Jones" <simonpj(a)microsoft.com> writes: > Gentle Haskellers > > Haskell has now got a decent, hierarchical module system, supported by > GHC, Hugs and NHC, and the library structure is now quite well > populated. For example, here are the "base" libraries shipped with GHC > (similar libraries come with Hugs and Nhc): > http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/base/index.html > > Languages flourish when libraries are plentiful, reliable, and well > documented. In an open-source community like the Haskell community, > plentiful libraries depend on contributions from the community. > > The difficulty is that it is currently not obvious what Joe > Programmer > should do to contribute a library to the community. > > I think this difficulty is a major obstacle to Haskell's > progress, > perhaps even the largest single obstacle today. I always find cvs difficult to use, why not put a wiki website for the library code where everyone could *easily* contribute. There needs some control, but simply not allowing a user to add some code that does not compile can do the tricks. -- Yoann Padioleau, INSA de Rennes, France, Opinions expressed here are only mine. Je n'écris qu'à titre personnel. **____ Get Free. Be Smart. Simply use Linux and Free Software. ____**

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RE: FW: First Attempt at Crypto Library
by Simon Marlow 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

> This reminds me, for my ginsu project > http://repetae.net/john/computer/ginsu/ > I implemented interfaces to curses and part of OpenSSL's cryptography > routines. Would there be interest in putting those into the general > haskell librarys as well? As far as including more code in the libraries that we ship with GHC goes, the gates are pretty much closed right now - if your library is small enough it might be able to sneak in, but we're actively trying to keep a bound on the amount of code we have to build/ship with GHC. We're aware that this makes life difficult for those trying to supply libraries for use with GHC, and both Simon & I think this is a big problem. We've suggested[1] that what the community as a whole needs is an independently-maintained library infrastructure that supports building and packaging libraries in a system- and compiler-independent way. This is a BIG undertaking, which we don't have the time to tackle. So far no-one has stepped up to the plate (with the possible exception of Henrik Nilsson who recently distributed some code which takes an initial stab at the problem). This doesn't mean that using the CVS repository and putting your libraries under fptools/libraries is ruled out; indeed there are lots of libraries under fptools/libraries that aren't shipped with GHC by default (ObjectIO, GLUT, X11, HGL, HaXml, etc.). We welcome more libraries in the source tree, and that's one way to get access to a build system which already does a lot of the work for you - but the fptools build system doesn't provide the packaging facilities that we'd want from a more general library infrastructure. Cheers, Simon [1] http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/glasgow-haskell-users/2002-November/004 322.html

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RE: FW: First Attempt at Crypto Library
by Simon Marlow 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

> Since we already have a little hierarchy based on the codec's purpose: > Codec.Image (e.g. Codec.Image.Jpeg) > Codec.Video (e.g. Codec.Video.Mpeg2) > then how about adding > Codec.Text (e.g. Codec.Text.Base64) > because its role, like uuencoding, is to convert binary streams to > 7-bit ASCII text i.e. transmissible by email. [...] > I would have thought that its population would look something like: > > Codec.Encryption.DES > Codec.Encryption.RSA > Codec.Encryption.Blowfish > > etc. No need for any deeper structure. Any attempt to further > classify crypto schemes by method or purpose would be confusing I > think. Crypto is just crypto, i.e. binary to binary. Ok, both sound reasonable to me. Cheers, Simon

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RE: Bits Problem
by Simon Peyton-Jones 17 Apr '03

17 Apr '03

Library and FFI guys (esp Manuel) | I can see Bool can be an instance of Bit but why does it | need to be an instance of Num? We can't remember who made the change or why. The advantage of making Num a superclass of bits is that (as someone mentioned) it allows us to give a default implementation of bit and > testBit: > > bit i = 1 `shift` i > x `testBit` i = (x .&. bit i) /= 0 So the choice is a) Keep Num as superclass, and offer the default implementations b) Remove Num and require instances of Bits to supply bit and testBit Myself I'd go for (b), but others on the libraries list may want to weigh in. (The FFI folk should be interested because the Bits library is part of the FFI spec. Note to Manuel: section 5.2 would be better with an explicit class declaration for Bits!) [SimonMar things we could make do with just Eq to implement testBit.] Simon | -----Original Message----- | From: haskell-admin(a)haskell.org [mailto:haskell-admin@haskell.org] On Behalf Of Dominic Steinitz | Sent: 06 April 2003 14:08 | To: Glynn Clements | Cc: haskell(a)haskell.org | | Is this a recent change? I've downloaded Ian Lynagh's DES module and it | doesn't compile because of this. I assume it used to. I don't see the | rationale for this. I can see Bool can be an instance of Bit but why does it | need to be an instance of Num? | | Dominic Steinitz | ----- Original Message ----- | From: "Glynn Clements" <glynn.clements(a)virgin.net> | To: "Dominic Steinitz" <dominic.steinitz(a)blueyonder.co.uk> | Cc: <haskell(a)haskell.org> | Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 2:35 PM | Subject: Re: Bits Problem | | | > | > Dominic Steinitz wrote: | > | > > Can anyone explain this? Hugs doesn't complain. | > > | > > Prelude> :set --version | > > The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 5.04.1 | > > | > > test.hs:5: | > > No instance for (Num Bool) | > > arising from the instance declaration at test.hs:5 | > > In the instance declaration for `Bits Bool' | > > | > > module Main(main) where | > > | > > import Bits | > > | > > instance Bits Bool where | > > complement False = True | > > complement True = False | > | > GHC's definition of Bits requires that instances of Bits are also | > instances of Num. | > | > This constraint is required for the default implementations of bit and | > testBit: | > | > bit i = 1 `shift` i | > x `testBit` i = (x .&. bit i) /= 0 | > | > -- | > Glynn Clements <glynn.clements(a)virgin.net> | | _______________________________________________ | Haskell mailing list | Haskell(a)haskell.org | http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell

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Re: Help Creating Libraries
by Dominic Steinitz 15 Apr '03

15 Apr '03

Simon, Problem 2 is now cured. I installed libncurses-devel and ghc is compiling away. I'm off to bed. Many thanks for your help. Should I suggest some text to the ghc build guide to say that you need these two packages? Dominic Steinitz ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dominic Steinitz" <dominic.steinitz(a)blueyonder.co.uk> To: "Simon Peyton-Jones" <simonpj(a)microsoft.com>; "Simon Marlow" <simonmar(a)microsoft.com> Cc: <libraries(a)haskell.org> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 8:59 PM Subject: Re: Help Creating Libraries > Simon, > > Thanks that's cured problem 1 but I still have problem 2. I've searched on > "ghc lreadline" and the only advice I could find was to install the > readline-devel package. > > [dom@tility fptools]$ rpm -qa | grep readline > readline-devel-4.2a-4 > readline-4.2a-1mdk > [dom@tility fptools]$ > > I did this but still got the same error. > > /usr/bin/ghc -M -optdep-f -optdep.depend -osuf > o -ldl -cpp -DPKG_TOOL -DWANT_PRETTY -package lang -package util -package > text -O Main.hs Package.hs ParsePkgConfLite.hs > make all > /usr/bin/ghc -o ghc-pkg.bin -ldl -cpp -DPKG_TOOL -DWANT_PRETTY -package > lang -package util -package text -O Main.o Package.o > ParsePkgConfLite.o > /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lncurses > collect2: ld returned 1 exit status > make[4]: *** [ghc-pkg.bin] Error 1 > make[3]: *** [boot] Error 2 > make[2]: *** [boot] Error 1 > make[1]: *** [boot] Error 1 > make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dom/fptools/ghc' > make: *** [all] Error 1 > [dom@tility fptools]$ > > Dominic Steinitz > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Simon Peyton-Jones" <simonpj(a)microsoft.com> > To: "Dominic Steinitz" <dominic.steinitz(a)blueyonder.co.uk>; "Simon Marlow" > <simonmar(a)microsoft.com> > Cc: <libraries(a)haskell.org> > Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 8:00 AM > Subject: RE: Help Creating Libraries > > > OK, problem 1 is that you have to say 'autoconf' in fptools/ghc, as well > as in fptools. > The documentation may well be out of date on this point -- I'll check. > > Problem 2, the readline thing is a regular gotcha that bites us at about > weekly intervals. I don't understand the problem, let alone the > solution, so I'll let Simon reply. I suppose it could be a consequence > of problem 1 > > Simon > > | -----Original Message----- > | From: Dominic Steinitz [mailto:dominic.steinitz@blueyonder.co.uk] > | Sent: 14 April 2003 20:07 > | To: Simon Peyton-Jones; Simon Marlow > | Cc: libraries(a)haskell.org > | > | Simon, > | > | Thanks. > | > | I checked out as follows: > | > | [dom@tility fptools]$ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@glass.cse.ogi.edu:/cvs > | checkout -r > | ghc-5-04-2 ghc hslibs libraries > | > | But got the following. I'm not sure what it's telling me. > | > | configure: creating ./config.status > | config.status: creating mk/config.mk > | config.status: creating mk/config.h > | config.status: executing default commands > | configure: configuring in ghc > | configure: running /bin/sh > | /configure --prefix=/usr/local --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=. > | ./configure: ./configure: No such file or directory > | configure: error: /bin/sh ./configure failed for ghc > | [dom@tility fptools]$ > | > | On the assumption this wasn't serious I then tried > | > | 1004 cd ../glafp-utils/ > | 1005 make boot > | 1006 make > | 1007 cd ../ghc > | 1008 make boot > | [dom@tility ghc]$ > | > | but got the following: > | > | /usr/bin/ghc -M -optdep-f -optdep.depend -osuf > | o -ldl -cpp -DPKG_TOOL -DWANT_PRETTY -package lang -package util > -package > | text -O Main.hs Package.hs ParsePkgConfLite.hs > | make all > | /usr/bin/ghc -o ghc-pkg.bin -ldl -cpp -DPKG_TOOL -DWANT_PRETTY > -package > | lang -package util -package text -O Main.o Package.o > | ParsePkgConfLite.o > | /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lreadline > | collect2: ld returned 1 exit status > | make[3]: *** [ghc-pkg.bin] Error 1 > | make[2]: *** [boot] Error 2 > | make[1]: *** [boot] Error 1 > | make: *** [boot] Error 1 > | [dom@tility ghc]$ > | > | > | Dominic Steinitz > | ----- Original Message ----- > | From: "Simon Peyton-Jones" <simonpj(a)microsoft.com> > | To: "Dominic Steinitz" <dominic.steinitz(a)blueyonder.co.uk>; "Simon > Marlow" > | <simonmar(a)microsoft.com> > | Cc: <libraries(a)haskell.org> > | Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 9:14 AM > | Subject: RE: Help Creating Libraries > | > | > | Aha. It seems that the libraries tree is not independent of the 'ghc' > | tree; this is because the 'base/GHC/' subtree is absolutely GHC > | specific. > | > | The quickest workaround is to check out ghc/ as well as libraries/, > and > | say 'make boot' in the ghc tree. Don't forget to do the 'configure' > | stuff. > | > | Also, compiling the libraries tree probably assumes that you want to > use > | the ghc in the same tree. You may need to add 'HC=ghc' to your 'make' > | calls. > | > | Simon > | > | | -----Original Message----- > | | From: Dominic Steinitz [mailto:dominic.steinitz@blueyonder.co.uk] > | | Sent: 12 April 2003 12:09 > | | To: Simon Marlow; Simon Peyton-Jones > | | Cc: libraries-request(a)haskell.org; glasgow-haskell-users(a)haskell.org > | | > | | I've tried building the libraries tree but got the following. Can > | anyone > | | help? > | | > | | I'm not sure what name to give the proposed crypto library. Should > it > | be > | | Data.Crypto? > | | > | | [dom@tility libraries]$ make boot > | | > | > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > | | ===fptools== Recursively making `boot' in base haskell98 network > | haskell-src > | | ... > | | PWD = /home/dom/fptools/libraries > | | > | > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > | | > | > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > | | ==fptools== make boot -r; > | | in /home/dom/fptools/libraries/base > | | > | > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > | | make[1]: *** No rule to make target `/prelude/primops.txt', needed > by > | | `GHC/PrimopWrappers.hs'. Stop. > | | make: *** [boot] Error 1 > | | [dom@tility libraries]$ > | | > | | Dominic Steinitz > | | ----- Original Message ----- > | | From: "Simon Marlow" <simonmar(a)microsoft.com> > | | To: "Simon Peyton-Jones" <simonpj(a)microsoft.com>; "Dominic Steinitz" > | | <dominic.steinitz(a)blueyonder.co.uk> > | | Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 10:48 AM > | | Subject: RE: Help Creating Libraries > | | > | | > | | Hi Dominic, > | | > | | There are two ways to add libraries: do it directly in a GHC tree > | using > | | our build infrastructure, or try to do it on your own. We tried to > | get > | | some interest going in developing a separate build infrastructure > for > | | people in your position (see discussions on the GHC lists), but that > | | effort seems to be stalled. > | | > | | Cheers, > | | Simon > | | > | | > -----Original Message----- > | | > From: Simon Peyton-Jones > | | > Sent: 07 April 2003 08:51 > | | > To: Dominic Steinitz; Simon Marlow > | | > Cc: Simon Peyton-Jones > | | > > | | > Dominic > | | > > | | > Excellent! Simon is the library king, but he's away today. > | | > I think it goes like this: you agree with Simon (and > | | > preferably the libraries(a)haskell.org) libraries list what the > | | > name and signature of your module will be. We give you CVS > | | > access. You check out the libraries tree (no need to build > | | > GHC if you don't want to) and add your library. With Haddock > | | > documentation. That's it. > | | > > | | > But it ought to be documented -- then more people might do it! > | | > > | | > Simon > | | > > | | > | -----Original Message----- > | | > | From: Dominic Steinitz > [mailto:dominic.steinitz@blueyonder.co.uk] > | | > | Sent: 06 April 2003 17:09 > | | > | To: Simon Peyton-Jones; Simon Marlow > | | > | > | | > | Simon & Simon, > | | > | > | | > | I'd quite like to create a crypto library. There are some > | | > modules already > | | > | scattered around the place: md5, sha1, des and rsa. I've > | | > just added cipher > | | > | block chaining mode to the existing des module. > | | > | > | | > | I'd be grateful for any advice on how to set about creating > | | > a library. Do I > | | > | have to check out the ghc source from CVS and build it and > | | > somehow add an > | | > | extra library? Is there a document describing how to do it? > | | > Should I be > | | > | asking this question on the libraries mailing list? > | | > | > | | > | Dominic Steinitz > | | > | > | | > > | | > > | | > | > | > | > > >

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