Show HN: IHP v1.0 – Batteries-included web framework built on Haskell and Nix

[montmorency88]

IHP is already used in production for a number of commercial projects, but I'd also highly recommend the framework for anyone interested in just learning and hacking away with haskell. The IHP IDE is a great playground and you are automatically set up with a postgres db, ghc, hls, etc. So a lot of the configuration barrier is removed and you can just start writing Haskell and experimenting with some of the cool libraries on hackage.

[z9znz]

It looks great!

Do you think the web-based IDE is enough to be productive? For example, could this work on a Chromebook (in browser) or an iPad Pro (browser only)?

[jalino23]

I guess its time to learn myself a haskell for great good!

[_query]

Really happy we've finally got to the 1.0 status :) If you like to take a look at the code, check our GitHub at https://github.com/digitallyinduced/ihp

[desireco42]

Wow, just started watching video, this is really nice. The integrated environment, db and everything makes it super easy to get started. I guess you made it so you just have no excuses to try this out.

Big thank you for developers.

[_query]

Thanks! :) I appreciate your feedback

[njaremko]

It looks like Docker support is still a paid feature? That's disappointing. I had written a blog post outlining how important docker support was and explaining how little work it was to get working, and at the time the maintainers agreed it should be a free feature, but it seems they've changed their minds.

[_query]

There's some unofficial ways to build docker images, check https://zacwood.me/posts/building-ihp-apps-github-actions/ :)

We've not changed our minds on docker becoming a free feature eventually. We just didn't update the pricing yet, but this is planned for the near future.

[VTimofeenko]

If it's using nix for building - there's multiple ways to DIY turn that into a docker container, like pkgs.dockerTools.buildImage or nixpacks:

https://github.com/railwayapp/nixpacks

[xrd]

Is this something I can play with despite zero knowledge of Haskell?

[_query]

Yes, you can get pretty far without knowing anything about Haskell. Once you've something on the screen you'll eventually get to learn a bit more about functional programming and Haskell.

A good starting might btw be our IHP Casts Youtube playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLl9Sjq6Nzc&list=PLenFm8BWuK...

[njrc9]

One of the nice features of IHP is that, thanks to Haskell’s strict type checking, it does not just eliminate bugs, it also speeds up development. E.g. if you want to change or build a new feature, you don’t need to write tests for it since the compiler basically does that for you. Since you don’t need to write tests, your work is perhaps half of what it would be normally – and neither do you have to know how to write good tests, which is an entire skill in itself.

[tome]

Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but Haskell developers should definitely write tests, and good ones know how to write good tests. The type system eliminates the need for some forms of testing, but not all.

[eddsh]

Actually it’s common for Haskell devs to write property-based tests that are far more complex than regular tests (identifying useful properties is a true artform). Source: I’ve been a test engineer on a large Haskell product!

[epgui]

Type safety on its own does not guarantee program correctness, nor does it eliminate the need to write tests.

[switchbak]

Don't need to write _type_ tests (like you would in a dynamic language). Having strong typing doesn't magically do formal validation on your logic. Leaning heavily on types is good practice, but that doesn't eliminate most of the high value tests you'd have to write.

[mgomez]

I've been meaning to pick up either Haskell or OCaml for my next language. On the OCaml side, I see Cornell's free CS 3110 textbook recommended around here. Is there something similar on the Haskell side?

[buzzy_hacker]

We used http://www.learnyouahaskell.com/ in my PL class in college, I enjoyed it

[belmont_sup]

I’m going through Effective Haskell. https://pragprog.com/titles/rshaskell/effective-haskell/ Pretty great resource, but still WIP.

[theCodeStig]

The academic analogue would be: Programming in Haskell, by Graham Hutton http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~pszgmh/pih.html

[cosmic_quanta]

I learned by reading Haskell Programming from First Principles. Great book which covers most topics you'd need to know in order to write and read Haskell in the wild. Highly recommended

[doe88]

Also, this wiki is a great ressource: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell

[ilrwbwrkhv]

Why is the editor integration and autocomplete still so poor? Shouldn't strong types help with that?

[_query]

Check out the docs on editor integrations: https://ihp.digitallyinduced.com/Guide/editors.html

With VSCode the editor integration and autocompletion should work really well. You can see a demo in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8_8XYO6rgY

[tobias2014]

How does this compare with Yesod?