13 ms·

Stack – a Haskell development tool

161 points by rev 11y ago

deckiedan 11y ago
This looks pretty cool - I hope it works. I couldn't download the ubuntu package, as download.fpcomplete.com is unreachable here. I downloaded the linux-generic package, but it seems to be a bit older, and so doesn't cope w/o a stack.yaml file. OK - now with a stack.yaml file it's busy getting me a ghci... cabal hell was one of the first things that really put me off haskell. I was downloading and trying to get xmonad working, but within half an hour, had a completely unusable ghc / xmonad combination. I think I was on debian, and the version of ghc that was installed wasn't compatible with the correct versions of various libs that xmonad wanted to have installed... Very frustrating. Well, looks like installing stack does at least allow me to get a ghci up and running. That's cool. The easier getting haskell up and running becomes, the better. It's a wacky and esoteric language enough without it being hard to get going... Interesting how programming languages "need" their own package manager these days. A bit of a pain that there's no universal one for all languages, but I guess that would be just too convenient...
- davexunit 11y ago
  >A bit of a pain that there's no universal one for all languages, but I guess that would be just too convenient... Nix and GNU Guix are capable of filling this role. Not only can they do the things that the typical system package managers (dpkg, yum) lack, but they also do many things that language-specific package managers lack. Transactional upgrades, rollbacks, unprivileged package installation, gracefully handling multiple versions of the same software, system-wide deduplication, full system configuration (if you want to use their associated distro), etc. I have read several Nix + Haskell success stories on various blogs, so I would say it's worth checking out. Nix and Guix are the future of package management.
  - chriswarbo 11y ago
    Nix is pretty great. Something to be aware of for Haskell: Nix's Haskell infrastructure has gone through a big breaking change recently. It's settled down now, and the new system (AKA "haskell NG") is much nicer, but all of the "stable" releases are using the old system, and a lot of blog posts, etc. online are now out of date.
    - cr__ 11y ago
      Do you have any links on how the new system is supposed to work? I'm trying to piece it together and I'm not having much luck.
      - rev 11y ago
        Nix wiki lists some: https://nixos.org/wiki/Haskell#Other_resources https://nixos.org/wiki/Haskell#Other_resources.
      - loevborg 11y ago
        As I understand it, the corresponding section of the nixpkgs manual is being written as we speak; when this is done, it should reflect the new haskell infrastructure which was merged a few months ago (no longer called haskell-ng any more btw). In the meantime, here are a few links to get you started: https://twitter.com/garbas/status/601717689225187328 https://twitter.com/garbas/status/601717689225187328 -- a recent presentation w/ accompanying slides introducing Nix's new haskell infrastructure by github.com/peti, the maintainer https://nixos.org/wiki/Haskell https://nixos.org/wiki/Haskell http://wiki.ocharles.org.uk/Nix http://wiki.ocharles.org.uk/Nix http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29033580/how-do-i-use-the-new-haskell-ng-infrastructure-on-nixos http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29033580/how-do-i-use-the...
        cr__ 11y ago
        The ocharles link is exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks so much.
- borsboom 11y ago
  > I couldn't download the ubuntu package, as download.fpcomplete.com is unreachable here. download.fpcomplete.com is served directly from an S3 bucket. You can try replacing download.fpcomplete.com with s3.amazonaws.com/download.fpcomplete.com (e.g. http://s3.amazonaws.com/download.fpcomplete.com/ubuntu/fpco.key http://s3.amazonaws.com/download.fpcomplete.com/ubuntu/fpco....), and see if that helps. Either way, I'd be interested to know who your ISP and/or if you're behind a corporate or national firewall.
  - deckiedan 11y ago
    No corp. firewall here - at home, in Carlisle, UK. ISP is talktalk.
x5n1 11y ago
Are there any examples of Haskell being used to do anything really cool and useful to the average programmer. To me it seems as an esoteric language that I would simply not bother using because no one uses it and deploying it would be a headache.
- tdees40 11y ago
  Yes. https://wiki.haskell.org/Haskell_in_industry https://wiki.haskell.org/Haskell_in_industry
- merijnv 11y ago
  Eh...xmonad and pandoc are pretty popular projects, both written in haskell
  - fho 11y ago
    To be honest: not everybody is into tiling window managers (xmonad). But I use pandoc regularly ... as in almost every day.
- platz 11y ago
  This was in the "news" just today: Haskell-based Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht: http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3959r0/haskellbased_bicycle_parking_guidance_system_in/ http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3959r0/haskellbased...
- psibi 11y ago
  Note that you can translate the skills you learn from Haskell to other languages. The way I write code in Python and Javascript for my day job has drastically changed after I have learned Haskell.
  - icebraining 11y ago
    Do you have any good examples (yours or otherwise) of Haskell-inspired Python code?
codygman 11y ago
Getting a 502 error when trying to add fpco.key. Guessing servers are overloaded?
- borsboom 11y ago
  Looks like there was a typo in the download links for Ubuntu 15.04. I've just fixed them, so please try again.
Simpliplant 11y ago
How anybody give some good comparison with Halcyon?
- mietek 11y ago
  Halcyon author here. Here’s a couple of my thoughts: http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3957e1/announcing_first_public_beta_of_stack/cs0ok3y?context=4 http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3957e1/announcing_f...
tyilo 11y ago
Hmm... $ cabal install stack Resolving dependencies... Configuring stack-0.0.1... Building stack-0.0.1... Failed to install stack-0.0.1 Build log ( /Users/Tyilo/.cabal/logs/stack-0.0.1.log ): Configuring stack-0.0.1... Building stack-0.0.1... Preprocessing library stack-0.0.1... ... [45 of 45] Compiling Stack.Config ( src/Stack/Config.hs, dist/build/Stack/Config.o ) ghc: panic! (the 'impossible' happened) (GHC version 7.10.1 for x86_64-apple-darwin): Loading temp shared object failed: dlopen(/var/folders/db/kt60mzx93p110r61jzjbf3nw0000gn/T/ghc19215_0/libghc19215_228.dylib, 5): Symbol not found: _stackzuIf4F8EsotzzFA5770kfJV6V_StackziTypesziFlagName_zdfBinaryFlagName_closure Referenced from: /var/folders/db/kt60mzx93p110r61jzjbf3nw0000gn/T/ghc19215_0/libghc19215_228.dylib Expected in: flat namespace in /var/folders/db/kt60mzx93p110r61jzjbf3nw0000gn/T/ghc19215_0/libghc19215_228.dylib Please report this as a GHC bug: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/reportabug cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: stack-0.0.1 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1
- borsboom 11y ago
  This is a bug in GHC 7.10.1 on OS X: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10322 https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10322. Until GHC 7.10.2 is released, we recommend building with 7.8.4 on Mac.
- reagency 11y ago
  The earlier you see failure, the luckier you are. The haskellverse is jammed packed with popular packages that won't build and run properly on your platform. Nothing quite works except for small toy projects and Haskell +systems whizzes who can dig into native platform arcana.
  - codygman 11y ago
    > The haskellverse is jammed packed with popular packages that won't build and run properly on your platform This tool is aimed at fixing that, ironically the GP used cabal in an attempt to install a tool fixing cabals problems. > Nothing quite works except for small toy projects and Haskell +systems whizzes who can dig into native platform arcana. Not true. Did you have a bad experience building a Haskell package for a specific platform in the past? Stack might let you install it all seamlessly, you should give it a try :) I recommend installing one of their binaries though: https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/wiki/Downloads https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/wiki/Downloads

161 points by rev 11y ago

This looks pretty cool - I hope it works. I couldn't download the ubuntu package, as download.fpcomplete.com is unreachable here. I downloaded the linux-generic package, but it seems to be a bit older, and so doesn't cope w/o a stack.yaml file. OK - now with a stack.yaml file it's busy getting me a ghci... cabal hell was one of the first things that really put me off haskell. I was downloading and trying to get xmonad working, but within half an hour, had a completely unusable ghc / xmonad combination. I think I was on debian, and the version of ghc that was installed wasn't compatible with the correct versions of various libs that xmonad wanted to have installed... Very frustrating. Well, looks like installing stack does at least allow me to get a ghci up and running. That's cool. The easier getting haskell up and running becomes, the better. It's a wacky and esoteric language enough without it being hard to get going... Interesting how programming languages "need" their own package manager these days. A bit of a pain that there's no universal one for all languages, but I guess that would be just too convenient...

davexunit 11y ago
>A bit of a pain that there's no universal one for all languages, but I guess that would be just too convenient... Nix and GNU Guix are capable of filling this role. Not only can they do the things that the typical system package managers (dpkg, yum) lack, but they also do many things that language-specific package managers lack. Transactional upgrades, rollbacks, unprivileged package installation, gracefully handling multiple versions of the same software, system-wide deduplication, full system configuration (if you want to use their associated distro), etc. I have read several Nix + Haskell success stories on various blogs, so I would say it's worth checking out. Nix and Guix are the future of package management.
- chriswarbo 11y ago
  Nix is pretty great. Something to be aware of for Haskell: Nix's Haskell infrastructure has gone through a big breaking change recently. It's settled down now, and the new system (AKA "haskell NG") is much nicer, but all of the "stable" releases are using the old system, and a lot of blog posts, etc. online are now out of date.
  - cr__ 11y ago
    Do you have any links on how the new system is supposed to work? I'm trying to piece it together and I'm not having much luck.
    - rev 11y ago
      Nix wiki lists some: https://nixos.org/wiki/Haskell#Other_resources https://nixos.org/wiki/Haskell#Other_resources.
    - loevborg 11y ago
      As I understand it, the corresponding section of the nixpkgs manual is being written as we speak; when this is done, it should reflect the new haskell infrastructure which was merged a few months ago (no longer called haskell-ng any more btw). In the meantime, here are a few links to get you started: https://twitter.com/garbas/status/601717689225187328 https://twitter.com/garbas/status/601717689225187328 -- a recent presentation w/ accompanying slides introducing Nix's new haskell infrastructure by github.com/peti, the maintainer https://nixos.org/wiki/Haskell https://nixos.org/wiki/Haskell http://wiki.ocharles.org.uk/Nix http://wiki.ocharles.org.uk/Nix http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29033580/how-do-i-use-the-new-haskell-ng-infrastructure-on-nixos http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29033580/how-do-i-use-the...
      - cr__ 11y ago
        The ocharles link is exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks so much.
borsboom 11y ago
> I couldn't download the ubuntu package, as download.fpcomplete.com is unreachable here. download.fpcomplete.com is served directly from an S3 bucket. You can try replacing download.fpcomplete.com with s3.amazonaws.com/download.fpcomplete.com (e.g. http://s3.amazonaws.com/download.fpcomplete.com/ubuntu/fpco.key http://s3.amazonaws.com/download.fpcomplete.com/ubuntu/fpco....), and see if that helps. Either way, I'd be interested to know who your ISP and/or if you're behind a corporate or national firewall.
- deckiedan 11y ago
  No corp. firewall here - at home, in Carlisle, UK. ISP is talktalk.

x5n1 11y ago

Are there any examples of Haskell being used to do anything really cool and useful to the average programmer. To me it seems as an esoteric language that I would simply not bother using because no one uses it and deploying it would be a headache.

tdees40 11y ago
Yes. https://wiki.haskell.org/Haskell_in_industry https://wiki.haskell.org/Haskell_in_industry
merijnv 11y ago
Eh...xmonad and pandoc are pretty popular projects, both written in haskell
- fho 11y ago
  To be honest: not everybody is into tiling window managers (xmonad). But I use pandoc regularly ... as in almost every day.
platz 11y ago
This was in the "news" just today: Haskell-based Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht: http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3959r0/haskellbased_bicycle_parking_guidance_system_in/ http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3959r0/haskellbased...
psibi 11y ago
Note that you can translate the skills you learn from Haskell to other languages. The way I write code in Python and Javascript for my day job has drastically changed after I have learned Haskell.
- icebraining 11y ago
  Do you have any good examples (yours or otherwise) of Haskell-inspired Python code?

codygman 11y ago

Getting a 502 error when trying to add fpco.key. Guessing servers are overloaded?

borsboom 11y ago
Looks like there was a typo in the download links for Ubuntu 15.04. I've just fixed them, so please try again.

Simpliplant 11y ago

How anybody give some good comparison with Halcyon?

mietek 11y ago
Halcyon author here. Here’s a couple of my thoughts: http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3957e1/announcing_first_public_beta_of_stack/cs0ok3y?context=4 http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3957e1/announcing_f...

tyilo 11y ago

Hmm... $ cabal install stack Resolving dependencies... Configuring stack-0.0.1... Building stack-0.0.1... Failed to install stack-0.0.1 Build log ( /Users/Tyilo/.cabal/logs/stack-0.0.1.log ): Configuring stack-0.0.1... Building stack-0.0.1... Preprocessing library stack-0.0.1... ... [45 of 45] Compiling Stack.Config ( src/Stack/Config.hs, dist/build/Stack/Config.o ) ghc: panic! (the 'impossible' happened) (GHC version 7.10.1 for x86_64-apple-darwin): Loading temp shared object failed: dlopen(/var/folders/db/kt60mzx93p110r61jzjbf3nw0000gn/T/ghc19215_0/libghc19215_228.dylib, 5): Symbol not found: _stackzuIf4F8EsotzzFA5770kfJV6V_StackziTypesziFlagName_zdfBinaryFlagName_closure Referenced from: /var/folders/db/kt60mzx93p110r61jzjbf3nw0000gn/T/ghc19215_0/libghc19215_228.dylib Expected in: flat namespace in /var/folders/db/kt60mzx93p110r61jzjbf3nw0000gn/T/ghc19215_0/libghc19215_228.dylib Please report this as a GHC bug: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/reportabug cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: stack-0.0.1 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1

borsboom 11y ago
This is a bug in GHC 7.10.1 on OS X: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10322 https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10322. Until GHC 7.10.2 is released, we recommend building with 7.8.4 on Mac.
reagency 11y ago
The earlier you see failure, the luckier you are. The haskellverse is jammed packed with popular packages that won't build and run properly on your platform. Nothing quite works except for small toy projects and Haskell +systems whizzes who can dig into native platform arcana.
- codygman 11y ago
  > The haskellverse is jammed packed with popular packages that won't build and run properly on your platform This tool is aimed at fixing that, ironically the GP used cabal in an attempt to install a tool fixing cabals problems. > Nothing quite works except for small toy projects and Haskell +systems whizzes who can dig into native platform arcana. Not true. Did you have a bad experience building a Haskell package for a specific platform in the past? Stack might let you install it all seamlessly, you should give it a try :) I recommend installing one of their binaries though: https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/wiki/Downloads https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/wiki/Downloads