Haskell Weekly News: October 24, 2006

[this week's hwn Don Stewart **20061024014720] { addfile ./archives/20061024.html hunk ./archives/20061024.html 1 + +Haskell Weekly News: October 24, 2006 +

Welcome to issue 46 of HWN, a weekly newsletter covering + developments in the Haskell community.

Announcements

MissingH 0.16.0. John Goerzen + announced + that the latest version of MissingH is now available. MissingH is a + suite of 'missing' library functions. New features include: render + numbers as binary units, a progress tracker, turn QuickCheck tests + into HUnit tests, and GHC 6.6 support.
SMP parallel Pugs on GHC. Audrey Tang + announced + that +parallel support, on top of GHC's new SMP runtime system, has been added to +Pugs, the standard bearer Perl6 +implementation.
YAHT is now a part of the wikibook. Eric Kow + announced + that the famous 'Yet Another Haskell Tutorial' has been imported into + the Haskell + wikibook. Let the great Haskell Remix begin!

Haskell'

This section covers the Haskell' standardisation +process.

Discussion

Ruby puzzles. Jim Burton + mentioned + that he was working on the Ruby + quiz puzzles in Haskell -- an interesting exercise.
DeepSeq and parallel strategies. Chad Scherrer + started + a bit of a discussion about the connection between the deepSeq + function, and Control.Parallel.Strategies.rnf
Type level functions. Oleg Kiselyov + described + how to use type level programming to create a type of constrained + lists.
Extending the core libraries. Josef Svenningsson + started + a largish thread on adding a concat.intersperse function to the base + library, leading to an interesting discussion on whether the time has + come for an formal process for extending core libraries.
data Void. Conor McBride + proposed + adding the type with no inhabitants other than _|_ to the core + libraries.

Blog noise

Haskell news from the +blogosphere.

About the Haskell Weekly News

Each week, new editions are posted to + the Haskell mailing + list as well as to the Haskell + Sequence and Planet Haskell. RSS is also available, and + headlines appear on haskell.org.

The Haskell Weekly News is also available in Spanish +translation.

To help create new editions of this newsletter, please + see the contributing + information. Send stories to dons at cse.unsw.edu.au. The + darcs repository is available at darcs get + http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/code/hwn

+ addfile ./archives/20061024.txt hunk ./archives/20061024.txt 1 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Haskell Weekly News +http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/HWN +Issue 46 - October 24, 2006 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Welcome to issue 46 of HWN, a weekly newsletter covering developments + in the Haskell community. + +Announcements + + * MissingH 0.16.0. John Goerzen [1]announced that the latest version + of MissingH is now available. MissingH is a suite of 'missing' + library functions. New features include: render numbers as binary + units, a progress tracker, turn QuickCheck tests into HUnit tests, + and GHC 6.6 support. + + 1. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14400 + + * SMP parallel Pugs on GHC. Audrey Tang [2]announced that parallel + support, on top of GHC's new SMP runtime system, has been added to + Pugs, the standard bearer [3]Perl6 implementation. + + 2. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14402/focus=14402 + 3. http://pugs.blogs.com/pugs/2006/10/smp_paralleliza.html + + * YAHT is now a part of the wikibook. Eric Kow [4]announced that the + famous 'Yet Another Haskell Tutorial' has been imported into + [5]the Haskell wikibook. Let the great Haskell Remix begin! + + 4. http://koweycode.blogspot.com/2006/10/yaht-badly-imported.html + 5. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell + +Haskell' + + This section covers the [6]Haskell' standardisation process. + + * [7]Pattern guards + * [8]Standard syntax for preconditions, postconditions, and invariants + * [9]Indentation of If-Then-Else + * [10]Module imports anywhere + + 6. http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/haskell-prime + 7. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1750/focus=1750 + 8. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1773/focus=1773 + 9. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1763/focus=1763 + 10. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1764/focus=1764 + +Discussion + + * Ruby puzzles. Jim Burton [11]mentioned that he was working on the + [12]Ruby quiz puzzles in Haskell -- an interesting exercise. + + 11. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/16056/focus=16056 + 12. http://www.rubyquiz.com/ + + * DeepSeq and parallel strategies. Chad Scherrer [13]started a bit + of a discussion about the connection between the deepSeq function, + and Control.Parallel.Strategies.rnf + + 13. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/16047/focus=16047 + + * Type level functions. Oleg Kiselyov [14]described how to use type + level programming to create a type of constrained lists. + + 14. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/15978 + + * Extending the core libraries. Josef Svenningsson [15]started a + largish thread on adding a concat.intersperse function to the base + library, leading to an interesting discussion on whether the time + has come for an formal process for extending core libraries. + + 15. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/5280/focus=5280 + + * data Void. Conor McBride [16]proposed adding the type with no + inhabitants other than _|_ to the core libraries. + + 16. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/5321/focus=5321 + +Blog noise + + [17]Haskell news from the blogosphere. + + * [18]Optimus prime is actually dead, or, monadic transformers + * [19]Haskell, PDF and penrose tilings + * [20]Not everyone can dine at the Beverly Hills Social Club of Programming Languages + * [21]Would you like a side of referential transparency with your order.. + * [22]John Baez on lambda calculus and games + * [23]Monads: a field guide + * [24]Catch+YHC beats GHC + + 17. http://planet.haskell.org/ + 18. http://brokenhut.livejournal.com/172054.html + 19. http://www.alpheccar.org/en/posts/show/57 + 20. http://sequence.complete.org/node/215 + 21. http://weblog.raganwald.com/2006/10/would-you-like-side-of-referential.html + 22. http://wadler.blogspot.com/2006/10/john-baez-on-lambda-calculus-and-games.html + 23. http://sigfpe.blogspot.com/2006/10/monads-field-guide.html + 24. http://neilmitchell.blogspot.com/2006/10/30-faster-than-ghc.html + +About the Haskell Weekly News + + Each week, new editions are posted to [25]the Haskell mailing list as + well as to [26]the Haskell Sequence and [27]Planet Haskell. [28]RSS is + also available, and headlines appear on [29]haskell.org. + + The Haskell Weekly News is also [30]available in Spanish translation. + + To help create new editions of this newsletter, please see the + [31]contributing information. Send stories to dons at cse.unsw.edu.au. + The darcs repository is available at darcs get + http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/code/hwn + + 25. http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell + 26. http://sequence.complete.org/ + 27. http://planet.haskell.org/ + 28. http://sequence.complete.org/node/feed + 29. http://haskell.org/ + 30. http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/HWN/es + 31. http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/HWN hunk ./content.wiki 8 -"[announced] that the latest version of MissingH is now available. [http://quux.org/devel/missingh MissingH] is a suite of 'missing' library functions. New features include: render numbers as binary units, a progress tracker, turn QuickCheck tests into HUnit tests, and GHC 6.6 support." +"[http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14400 announced] that the latest version of MissingH is now available. MissingH is a suite of 'missing' library functions. New features include: render numbers as binary units, a progress tracker, turn QuickCheck tests into HUnit tests, and GHC 6.6 support.", hunk ./content.wiki 10 +Item +"SMP parallel Pugs on GHC" +"Audrey Tang" +"[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14402/focus=14402 announced] that +parallel support, on top of GHC's new SMP runtime system, has been added to Pugs, the standard bearer [http://pugs.blogs.com/pugs/2006/10/smp_paralleliza.html Perl6 implementation].", + +Item +"YAHT is now a part of the wikibook" +"Eric Kow" +"[http://koweycode.blogspot.com/2006/10/yaht-badly-imported.html announced] that the famous 'Yet Another Haskell Tutorial' has been imported into [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell the Haskell wikibook]. Let the great Haskell Remix begin!" hunk ./content.wiki 26 -"" -"Standard syntax for preconditions, postconditions, and invariants" +"http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1750/focus=1750" +"Pattern guards", + +Link +"http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1773/focus=1773" +"Standard syntax for preconditions, postconditions, and invariants", + +Link +"http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1763/focus=1763" +"Indentation of If-Then-Else", + +Link +"http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.prime/1764/focus=1764" +"Module imports anywhere" hunk ./content.wiki 49 +Item +"Ruby puzzles" +"Jim Burton" +"[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/16056/focus=16056 mentioned] that he was working on the [http://www.rubyquiz.com Ruby quiz] puzzles in Haskell -- an interesting exercise.", + +Item +"DeepSeq and parallel strategies" +"Chad Scherrer" +"[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/16047/focus=16047 started] a bit of a discussion about the connection between the deepSeq function, and Control.Parallel.Strategies.rnf" , + +Item +"Type level functions" +"Oleg Kiselyov" +"[http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/15978 described] how to use type level programming to create a type of constrained lists.", + +Item +"Extending the core libraries" +"Josef Svenningsson" +"[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/5280/focus=5280 started] a largish thread on adding a concat.intersperse function to the base library, leading to an interesting discussion on whether the time has come for an formal process for extending core libraries.", + +Item +"data Void" +"Conor McBride" +"[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/5321/focus=5321 proposed] adding the type with no inhabitants other than _|_ to the core libraries." + hunk ./content.wiki 82 +Link +"http://brokenhut.livejournal.com/172054.html" +"Optimus prime is actually dead, or, monadic transformers", + hunk ./content.wiki 88 -"Haskell, PDF and Penrose Tilings", +"Haskell, PDF and penrose tilings", hunk ./content.wiki 96 -" Would you like a side of referential transparency with your order.." +" Would you like a side of referential transparency with your order..", + +Link +"http://wadler.blogspot.com/2006/10/john-baez-on-lambda-calculus-and-games.html" +"John Baez on lambda calculus and games", + +Link +"http://sigfpe.blogspot.com/2006/10/monads-field-guide.html" +"Monads: a field guide", + +Link +"http://neilmitchell.blogspot.com/2006/10/30-faster-than-ghc.html" +"Catch+YHC beats GHC" hunk ./issue 1 -Issue 46 +Issue 47 hunk ./utils/publish.hs 202 + ppr _ (Jobs []) = empty hunk ./wiki/News.html 1 -''2006-10-19'' +''2006-10-24'' hunk ./wiki/News.html 3 -

GHC version 6.6. The GHC Team - [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14367/ announced] a new release of GHC! There have been many changes since the 6.4.2 release. For details, see [http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.6/html/users_guide/release-6-6.html the release notes]. Binary builds, source and packages are all found at [http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ GHC's home].

MissingH 0.16.0. John Goerzen + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14400 announced] that the latest version of MissingH is now available. MissingH is a suite of 'missing' library functions. New features include: render numbers as binary units, a progress tracker, turn QuickCheck tests into HUnit tests, and GHC 6.6 support.
Haddock version 0.8. Simon Marlow - [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14358/ announced] Haddock 0.8, including: cabalisation, Hoogle support, image inclusion. [http://www.haskell.org/haddock Read more.]
SMP parallel Pugs on GHC. Audrey Tang + [http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14402/focus=14402 announced] that +parallel support, on top of GHC's new SMP runtime system, has been added to Pugs, the standard bearer [http://pugs.blogs.com/pugs/2006/10/smp_paralleliza.html Perl6 implementation].
Pugs 6.2.13 released. Audrey Tang - [http://pugs.blogs.com/pugs/2006/10/pugs_6213_relea.html announced] that after nearly four months of development and 3400+ commits, [http://pugscode.org Pugs] 6.2.13, the leading Perl6 implementation written in Haskell, is now available.
STM invariants and exceptions. Tim Harris - [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14356/ announced] that new transactional memory features have been committed to GHC. The main change is to add support for dynamically checked data invariants of the kind described in [http://research.microsoft.com/~tharris/papers/2006-transact.pdf this paper (pdf)]. There are two operations: always X :: STM Bool -> STM () and alwaysSucceeds X :: STM a -> STM (). More details in [http://research.microsoft.com/~tharris/papers/2005-ppopp-composable.pdf here (pdf)].
Cabal version 1.1.6 is now available. Duncan Coutts - [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/5228/ announced] that [http://haskell.org/cabal/ Cabal], the common architecture for building applications and libraries, version 1.1.6 is now available. It is included in GHC version 6.6.
Fun in the Afternoon: Thurs 16th Nov in Oxford. Jeremy Gibbons - [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14373/ announced] that he, Graham Hutton and Conor McBride at Nottingham are organizing a seminar, [http://sneezy.cs.nott.ac.uk/fun/ Fun in the Afternoon], on functional programming and related topics. The idea is to have a small number of talks as an antidote to mid-term blues, three afternoons a year. The hope is that talks will be informal and fun, and that there will be plenty of scope for discussion and chat as well. Looks fun!
HC&A Call for Contributions. Andres Loeh - [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14384/ asked] for contributions towards the 11th [http://www.haskell.org/communities/ Haskell Communities & Activities Report], a bi-annual overview of the state of Haskell as well as Haskell-related projects of all flavours.
Generic Haskell version 1.60 (Diamond). Utrecht's Generic Haskell Team - [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14374/ announced] a new release of [http://www.generic-haskell.org Generic Haskell], an extension of Haskell that facilitates generic programming. Generic Haskell includes: type-indexed values and type-indexed types. The Generic Haskell compiler takes Generic Haskell source and produces Haskell code. This release adds support for Generic Views.
Streams 0.1 available for GHC 6.6. Bulat Ziganshin - [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14383/ announced] that the Streams 0.1 library is now compatible GHC 6.6.

YAHT is now a part of the wikibook. Eric Kow + [http://koweycode.blogspot.com/2006/10/yaht-badly-imported.html announced] that the famous 'Yet Another Haskell Tutorial' has been imported into [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell the Haskell wikibook]. Let the great Haskell Remix begin!

hunk ./wiki/Old_news.html 4 + +''2006-10-19'' + +

GHC version 6.6. The GHC Team + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14367/ announced] a new release of GHC! There have been many changes since the 6.4.2 release. For details, see [http://haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.6/html/users_guide/release-6-6.html the release notes]. Binary builds, source and packages are all found at [http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ GHC's home].
Haddock version 0.8. Simon Marlow + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14358/ announced] Haddock 0.8, including: cabalisation, Hoogle support, image inclusion. [http://www.haskell.org/haddock Read more.]
Pugs 6.2.13 released. Audrey Tang + [http://pugs.blogs.com/pugs/2006/10/pugs_6213_relea.html announced] that after nearly four months of development and 3400+ commits, [http://pugscode.org Pugs] 6.2.13, the leading Perl6 implementation written in Haskell, is now available.
STM invariants and exceptions. Tim Harris + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14356/ announced] that new transactional memory features have been committed to GHC. The main change is to add support for dynamically checked data invariants of the kind described in [http://research.microsoft.com/~tharris/papers/2006-transact.pdf this paper (pdf)]. There are two operations: always X :: STM Bool -> STM () and alwaysSucceeds X :: STM a -> STM (). More details in [http://research.microsoft.com/~tharris/papers/2005-ppopp-composable.pdf here (pdf)].
Cabal version 1.1.6 is now available. Duncan Coutts + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/5228/ announced] that [http://haskell.org/cabal/ Cabal], the common architecture for building applications and libraries, version 1.1.6 is now available. It is included in GHC version 6.6.
Fun in the Afternoon: Thurs 16th Nov in Oxford. Jeremy Gibbons + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14373/ announced] that he, Graham Hutton and Conor McBride at Nottingham are organizing a seminar, [http://sneezy.cs.nott.ac.uk/fun/ Fun in the Afternoon], on functional programming and related topics. The idea is to have a small number of talks as an antidote to mid-term blues, three afternoons a year. The hope is that talks will be informal and fun, and that there will be plenty of scope for discussion and chat as well. Looks fun!
HC&A Call for Contributions. Andres Loeh + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14384/ asked] for contributions towards the 11th [http://www.haskell.org/communities/ Haskell Communities & Activities Report], a bi-annual overview of the state of Haskell as well as Haskell-related projects of all flavours.
Generic Haskell version 1.60 (Diamond). Utrecht's Generic Haskell Team + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14374/ announced] a new release of [http://www.generic-haskell.org Generic Haskell], an extension of Haskell that facilitates generic programming. Generic Haskell includes: type-indexed values and type-indexed types. The Generic Haskell compiler takes Generic Haskell source and produces Haskell code. This release adds support for Generic Views.
Streams 0.1 available for GHC 6.6. Bulat Ziganshin + [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/14383/ announced] that the Streams 0.1 library is now compatible GHC 6.6.

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