Haskell App Reviews
Love it. Getting a Haskell project up and running from scratch can be very discouraging for beginners who are itching to get their hands dirty. The immediacy of this program has made learning, what is a very difficult language, an absolute pleasure for me. Minor nitpicks: - Slightly bummed by the lack of editing shortcuts you’d typically find in a code editor. - I find displaying the SpriteKit scenes in a popover/tooltip a little akward - I’d prefer that it just run in place, or on click if desired.
This has made going through haskell books and tutorials so much more pleasant. I wish it was extensible and had code completion, but otherwise it was worth every penny!
Haskell out of the box !
This haskell out-of-the-box is what I wanted to play fast on any device I have
The app feels totally Mac like. Due to the Mac Appstore Download it fits as a first class citizen. Alle the integration of librarys and SpriteKit is fantastic. I am not forced to fight with emacs and the commandline and can conzentraten on lerning the concepts. You can however install the commandline tools and work like a terminal wizard if you need to.
Was great, stays great!
For programming Haskell on the Mac there simply is no alternative as convenient as this one. I love this tool every single day!
I learned about this through the “Lambda the Ultimate” weblog. A pure joy to use. This will surely further the dissemination of Haskell programming language. A good learning environment. Hope this tool gets further refined, but already it’s well worth the price.
Being a Haskell newbie, using this app and its playgrounds has been a wonderful way to learn the language. Highly recommended if you’re new to Haskell.
If you started to learn haskell and loved it , you may have difficulties like me about types and how functions behaves at first step and some other topics.This app will help you write your code and test it immediately within application without frustration. With this new version you will have terminal line usage if preferred. My 4 start is for the good app and missing one is request for more gadgets :)
I like an approach used to create this application. It was possible to use it for testing various scenarios I was interested in. The idea itself is brilliant and I would like to see further impovements and bug fixes. Bugs: * Does not highlight syntax properly after copy and paste. * I have encountered a scenario where this application hangs. After "Force Quit” it was unable to load project back.
Impressive and Amazing
Finally a tool you can use to learn - teach and do the job. Big improvements from version 1.0 to 1.1!
If you’ve ever been curious about functional programming, or have been meaning to tinker with the Haskell programming language, this is the place to start. After working with Swift playgrounds and IPython notebooks, I’m convinced that interactive, compute-as-you-type environments are the best way to learn a new language. I wanted to learn Haskell last year, so I spent days setting up an IHaskell environment to tinker with it. I learned an incredible amount about that language in a short period of time by experimenting with it in an interactive IHaskell notebook. Haskell for Mac takes all the hassle out of setting up a system like that, and makes it a one-click install. Not only that, but it provides a truly as-you-type evaluation of everything you’re entering. It even contains all the packages you’d need to perform advanced graphing, something that took me over a week and a huge amount of frustration to get right in IHaskell. The interface is simple yet polished, and makes it easy to organize even multiple-file projects with resources within the playground environment. I’m really excited about the potential for this application to speed up my Haskell learning and development process. If you have any interest in Haskell or functional programming, you owe it to yourself to get this.
I have been wanting to learn Haskell and recently started to research the best ways to get a Haskell environment up and running on my iMac to play around with the language. I came across this program and initially was skeptical that it would be worth the $20. However, my desire to learn Haskell and the potential benefits of this tool made me quickly overlook the price and I am glad that I did. First, the editor does a great job with Haskell. It has an Xcode-like interface which makes it immediately familiar for a lot of programmers on the Mac. While the keyboard shortcuts are not an exact one-to-one with Xcode, the author did make sure to align with the most important ones. And it offers a live playground which allows you to learn Haskell interactively or experiment with an idea or existing piece of code. Anyone who has done any work with Playgrounds know how fantastic the visual REPL is. This one does not fall short in any way and relunctantly I will admit it is more responsive than Xcode’s. I haven’t explored if it offers any markup/markdown support, but the current version is well worth the investment even if you only use it to a) learn Haskell and b) occassionally pull it up to solve problems in Haskell So if you are trying to learn Haskell, I highly recommend this program.
I’ve been trying to learn Haskell for a while. However, it was always a pain because I spent just as much time playing around with the text editor, compiling, and whatnot as I did trying to learn how Haskell actually works. This is why I give four stars. It’s trying to fill in the need for a true Haskell IDE, not a bunch of extensions that need configured on some IDE meant for something else. Is it perfect? No. If you’re trying to learn Haskell it’s better than any other option in my opinion. If you’re an actual Haskell dev it probably won’t fill your needs yet. I won’t say it was worth the money in its current state, but it is actively developed and I’m glad I could support the developer to take this app to where it needs to be.
So far its working well for me. The playground style repl makes it easy to try explore types of things and experiment with quick functions more easily than the classic repl. As a Haskell learner, I suspect I’ll be using it more and more to help me work through problems. I’d love to see them update to the latest version of GHC and expand the list of included libraries to cover more fun stuff: maybe gloss, sdl2, and diagrams.
Crashes on El Capitan
When I run the examples provided to draw the graphics, the application crashes immediately on El Capitan.
I was a little hesitant at first to buy this app, but I have been pleasently surprised with how nicely it works out of the box. New features keep on rolling out. The 1 thing which made it fall short of say, a good plugin for intellij was that there was no auto complete when I purchased it. Even so the purchase was worth it, and that feature has now been added too :) I had 1 issue, which turned out to be a non issue, and I received a reply to my email within a few hours
This is a very important feature for me. I saw in the other review (by parvez.ahmed) that completion was added. If it really is there, I certainly can’t find it, so I’d rather use ghci.
Worth it! Playgrounds and a reasonably complete IDE environment set up out of the box really helps when trying to tackle Haskell, a language whose learning curve is frighteningly close to 90º. The developer is very responsive and the app is under regular active development.
Good Haskell Development Environment
This is a good way to get up and running with Haskell with minimal effort. It handles GHC directly so you don't have to install it yourself, and it works a lot like Jupyter notebooks where you can see the results of your code interactively which is really nice. The only feature holding this back from being 5 stars is it has no language server. As far as I can tell it just has syntax highlighting and will tell you errors interactively, but if you are exploring the functionality of a package or even the built-in functions and type class system you do not get tab completions or a dropdown list of what you're about to type like you would with a language server. This feature would an absolute game changer. Other than that I think it's worth it as sort of a jupyter notebook for Haskell to play around with concepts
Absolutely Amazing tool for learning Haskell
I'm trying to learn Haskell and honestly learning Haskell is hard by itself! I'm so happy to be able to test stuff so easily in this tool. Kudos to developers and keep up the great work.
Greate IDE - needs to be more well known
I don't quite understand why this IDE doesn't show up when people search for Haskell IDEs. This one is really nice and ought to be more well known.
does not work
I have macos monterey 12.6. I bought your Haskell for Mac on the Apple store an hour ago, paid for it, and it will not open.
Easy to use and Versatile
Haskell for Mac is not just an excellent learning tool, but also a convenient utility for quick experimentation. Excellent look and feel, very responsive support. Worthy of five stars!
No sound on the videos
I text based content is OK. It would ahve been nice to have the video content, but there is not sound. Just buy a book.
This isn't an IDE, it's garbage
You can't do anything as simple as compile and run from the IDE. This is absolute crap, these reviews were written by friends of the developer. I was fooled, do not waste your money on this garbage.
An Excellent IDE for Haskell
Haskell for Mac is a real favorite of mine and an indispensable tool. I have probably used it a couple hours a day, five or six days a week, for the last three or four years. I have written something like 100 plus (small) modules in it, mainly for the purpose of learning Haskell. Many of these modules have Haskell extensions (language pragmas) in them. What makes the application so useful to me is that I can have 30 or 40 sample outputs or tests in the Playground, then alter some source code and have those tests all recalculated in seconds. So the work style is that of interactive programming, but with something akin to bulk interactions. With any application, typically there will be features that one either does not use or does not know about. Haskell for Mac has capabilities that I have never tried. But everything I have used seems very suitable for its purpose. With Haskell, I do also use Visual Studio Code, IntelliJIDEA, and the command line compiler. But I would say that pretty much all the original code, and almost all the debugging is done in Haskell for Mac. There are a couple of features of the Editor that are less than perfect. There is a problem with the auto-scrolling, which seemingly randomly, and often once every ten seconds or so, pushes the left five characters out of sight under the left window or frame edge. This is not a lot of fun because you cannot see all your code (and you need to re-size the panel to bring it back). I did file a bug report on this maybe 18 months ago, but it has not been fixed and I see that people are still complaining about it. The fact is, for me, Haskell for Mac is so important and useful for me that I just workaround this by resizing perhaps every 10 seconds. Separately, and not really important at all, is that I would prefer the editor to identify matching brackets. Haskell does not have many brackets, but there are occasions when help with this would be valuable. All in all, this is a super program. If you are wanting to learn Haskell, or work with it, and if you are more comfortable with a Mac-style of program as opposed to command line, this is the one— buy it.
Easiest path for non-power users
I would prefer to work in VS Code, but setting up Haskell there is a PITA at best and broken at worst. I use Haskell for prototyping and this is a simple way to get working with the code.
this is not an IDE
I don't think this is an IDE. it's missed almost all the important features one IDE should has.
Take my $$$
I never used Haskell before getting this app. I do ObjC and Swift and wanted to learn about functional programming. This app is not a tutorial, but when combined with the web's "Learn You Haskell For Greater Good" (google it) i have slowly but surely improved. Had this app for years (since it first hit the app store). Greate support, updates, and works with all the haskell tutorials found online. This is not some Mac -version or light weight thing. This is Haskell. I really appreciate your company doing this. KNowing what I know now, i would pay 2x the price.
2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16GB Memory still lag even just opened
Except this, works very well.
An Exceptional IDE for Haskell
I program as a hobby, primarily with Java and Scala. Thus, I am used to JetBrain's products, and I've not found the Haskell plugin to be ideal for someone just starting out with Haskell, as I am. The Haskell IDE provides an Xcode like interface that is easily intuitive. You can create either an executable or a library project. And the IDE features a SUPER handy playground area for newbies to experiment with the language as they are coding. This is an excellent piece of software, ideally for any Haskell developer, new or otherwise.
Terrific!
Thank you
Doesn't work with 10.14
On a early 2015 macbook pro. Was broken out of the box, but thanks to excellent support from the developer I was able to get a working version. Since then it has worked flawlessly, and been the perfect platform for learning Haskell.
It just works
The IDE has not given me any problems. It includes a large library of packages to use when you become ambitious.
Good start for a great Haskell IDE
Integration with the SpriteKit and the very well written tutorial makes learning Haskell fun and easier to visualize what is going on. The editor itself has a lot of potential to be a great IDE for Haskell, and currently is more than sufficient for getting beginners started with writing Haskell code right away. The tutorial provides a great start to learning Haskell but still has a long way to go to fully explain the fundamentals of FP. I am looking forward to seeing it unfold over time. The app is an excellent value for the price.
Like Xcode for Haskell
If you’ve ever used Swift Playgrounds, you kind of know what to expect here. Honestly there’s no higher praise I can give an app than to say it does exactly what it advertises it does. It has a level of polish to match the Xcode interfaces it clearly takes much inspiration from.
This is a great learning tool!
I come out of a C, C++, C# world, and Haskell has been a challenge for me to noodle...until this product came along. I read a couple of tutorials and overviews and messed with plugins for my traditional dev tooling…but still got kinda lost along the way. This product, together with it’s accompanying tutorial and sample projects, broke down all the barriers. The playground is awesome! It makes figuring out your mistakes (and you will make mistakes) easy and interactive. I found myself writing immensely powerful programs with very little code…demonstrating the power of the language. Some of these programs - very natural in Haskell - would be awkward or difficult with my traditional tools. It’s a credit to the authors to simply illustrate the power of functional programming early. That’s the big epiphany that folks encumbered with preconceptions similar to mine are looking for. I am grateful!
If you are reading this you probably want to buy it
I’ve been using Haskell since the late 1990s, mostly Vim / Hugs and then switched to Vim / GHCI. Never managed to get Leksah working though I have to admit I didn’t try very hard. Haskell FP Lab took under 5 minutes to get the hang of. Haskell FP Lab is essentially a source code viewer right next to a REPL IDE. The IDE is for the REPL more than for the source code hence the comments about it lacking some standard IDE featues. Let me explain what I mean. In Haskell FP lab there are 3 panes: source, input, output. The constant rerunning of the input and output is important in terms of GHCI ease and simplicity. Let’s say for example in normal GHCI I define A then B in terms of A then C in terms of B and then I switch the definiton of A. In GHCI this doesn’t auto update the definitions of A and B from the command line. GHCI uses a numbering scheme internally. Definitions do update when reloading the source file however (:l …) Which means my REPL environment can get out of step with my source environment and what worked in the REPL won’t work, or won’t work the same source. The IDE interactive environment in Haskell FP Lab makes the GHCI REPL explicit and easy to see in terms of sequencng. You also get integrated type definitions with expression from your REPL which can help. The ease of integration between the REPL and the editor is what you are buying and it does save time and confusion. In terms of source IDE I think the comments below are valid. Hopefully future versions at least steal the coloring from other other open soruce editors that’s an easy update. Obviously things like source completion and suggestion would be useful but may be too hard. Easier more inegrated view of source for libraries. An updated Zvon type reference. Etc… would all be a huge plus. In short this is a good product. If you are getting started it will save you time. If you are comfortable with your editor plus GHCI it will still save you time. If you are the sort of person to be reading a review of a Mac Haskell IDE this is worth $20 to you: you’ll definitely use it $20 worth.
Good IDE, please add Unit testing
It is really convenient, It is great for a haskell n00b like myself. The only reason i don’t rate 5 stars is that it does not have unit testing. I will update my rating if this is added.
Great IDE
I really like this IDE. Its a tremendous help while learning Haskell. Also, thank you so much for fixing the auto complete.
Solid effort
I like that it includes a whole lot of Haskell libraries built right in and that the UI looks nice. However, the autocomplete sometimes feels like a hindrance then a help. For example, when I press the Spacebar for defining a parameter of a function, it will autocomplete with an existing binding. I should not have to press Esc to exit the autocomplete everytime I want to do this. For this and the lack of Vim mode, I will dock one star. Solid effort by the Developer for trying to give a really good Haskell experience on Mac though.
Essential Haskell Environment for Mac
Absolutely the best way to learn and use Haskell on Mac. Works well with Sierra and developer is very responsive to questions. 10 STARS!
What a nice easy way to Haskell on Mac!
This is such a good purchase to have all the installation hassles gone. The doc is excellent. The interface is easy, obvious and smooth. Fantastic.
Excellent for learning haskell
This has made going through haskell books and tutorials so much more pleasant. I wish it was extensible and had code completion, but otherwise it was worth every penny!
Lowering Haskell’s barrier to entry
Love it. Getting a Haskell project up and running from scratch can be very discouraging for beginners who are itching to get their hands dirty. The immediacy of this program has made learning, what is a very difficult language, an absolute pleasure for me. Minor nitpicks: - Slightly bummed by the lack of editing shortcuts you’d typically find in a code editor. - I find displaying the SpriteKit scenes in a popover/tooltip a little akward - I’d prefer that it just run in place, or on click if desired.
Great for learning haskell
I was a little hesitant at first to buy this app, but I have been pleasently surprised with how nicely it works out of the box. New features keep on rolling out. The 1 thing which made it fall short of say, a good plugin for intellij was that there was no auto complete when I purchased it. Even so the purchase was worth it, and that feature has now been added too :) I had 1 issue, which turned out to be a non issue, and I received a reply to my email within a few hours
Crashes on El Capitan
When I run the examples provided to draw the graphics, the application crashes immediately on El Capitan.
A Nice Tool for Learning Haskell
So far its working well for me. The playground style repl makes it easy to try explore types of things and experiment with quick functions more easily than the classic repl. As a Haskell learner, I suspect I’ll be using it more and more to help me work through problems. I’d love to see them update to the latest version of GHC and expand the list of included libraries to cover more fun stuff: maybe gloss, sdl2, and diagrams.
Great way to learn Haskell
I’ve been trying to learn Haskell for a while. However, it was always a pain because I spent just as much time playing around with the text editor, compiling, and whatnot as I did trying to learn how Haskell actually works. This is why I give four stars. It’s trying to fill in the need for a true Haskell IDE, not a bunch of extensions that need configured on some IDE meant for something else. Is it perfect? No. If you’re trying to learn Haskell it’s better than any other option in my opinion. If you’re an actual Haskell dev it probably won’t fill your needs yet. I won’t say it was worth the money in its current state, but it is actively developed and I’m glad I could support the developer to take this app to where it needs to be.
Super easy to get started
I have been wanting to learn Haskell and recently started to research the best ways to get a Haskell environment up and running on my iMac to play around with the language. I came across this program and initially was skeptical that it would be worth the $20. However, my desire to learn Haskell and the potential benefits of this tool made me quickly overlook the price and I am glad that I did. First, the editor does a great job with Haskell. It has an Xcode-like interface which makes it immediately familiar for a lot of programmers on the Mac. While the keyboard shortcuts are not an exact one-to-one with Xcode, the author did make sure to align with the most important ones. And it offers a live playground which allows you to learn Haskell interactively or experiment with an idea or existing piece of code. Anyone who has done any work with Playgrounds know how fantastic the visual REPL is. This one does not fall short in any way and relunctantly I will admit it is more responsive than Xcode’s. I haven’t explored if it offers any markup/markdown support, but the current version is well worth the investment even if you only use it to a) learn Haskell and b) occassionally pull it up to solve problems in Haskell So if you are trying to learn Haskell, I highly recommend this program.
An easy-to-use Haskell learning and development environment
If you’ve ever been curious about functional programming, or have been meaning to tinker with the Haskell programming language, this is the place to start. After working with Swift playgrounds and IPython notebooks, I’m convinced that interactive, compute-as-you-type environments are the best way to learn a new language. I wanted to learn Haskell last year, so I spent days setting up an IHaskell environment to tinker with it. I learned an incredible amount about that language in a short period of time by experimenting with it in an interactive IHaskell notebook. Haskell for Mac takes all the hassle out of setting up a system like that, and makes it a one-click install. Not only that, but it provides a truly as-you-type evaluation of everything you’re entering. It even contains all the packages you’d need to perform advanced graphing, something that took me over a week and a huge amount of frustration to get right in IHaskell. The interface is simple yet polished, and makes it easy to organize even multiple-file projects with resources within the playground environment. I’m really excited about the potential for this application to speed up my Haskell learning and development process. If you have any interest in Haskell or functional programming, you owe it to yourself to get this.