Haskell Noob In Need of Assistance - bash

This is a bit long, so bear with me!
I'm having a bit of trouble working with a Haskell program, that I have to use as part of a uni project. For reference, it's Casper.
So, you're supposed to execute a script, which is actually a Bash script to invoke Hugs interpreter like this:
exec $HUGSBIN/hugs $HUGSARGS +p"Casper> " $FILES
Where $FILES points to a Main.lhs file.
After this, I need to invoke a function "compile" with a path to a file, in the interpreter.
I need to perform the above in a scripted manner. I need this automated because I'm writing a program that will call on Casper in the background.
So I compiled the .lhs file. Now I want to execute the "compile" function but I have no idea how this is done. I try:
./Main compile <a path>
from the command line but it returns me an error about a file "test" not found. Upon investigation, I see these lines in the Main.lhs file:
>main :: String -> IO()
>main = compile "test"
>compile :: String -> IO()
>compile s = catch (compile0 False s) handler
[...snipped]
The 2nd line solves this question. Now my question is, how do I invoke the "compile" function and pass a path to it after I have compiled main.lhs? From the interpreter, I just type "compile " and it works, but I can't get the same to work after compiling the main.lhs and executing from the command line? Any ideas why? Is there any way I can script Hugs if all else fails?
Thank you for any assistance!

You may access the command-line arguments passed to a Haskell program via getArgs. For example, it sounds like you want a main function that does something like this:
>main = do
> args <- getArgs
> case args of
> [] -> putStrLn "What file did you want me to compile?"
> [filename] -> compile filename
> _ -> putStrLn "I only compile one file at a time."
Modify to taste.

Replace main with
main = getArgs >>= \(arg1:_) -> compile arg1
This will pass the first command line argument (arg1) to compile instead of "test", and ignore the rest (_). You may need to add
import System
or
import System.Environment
I can't remember what is needed in hugs for this.

Related

How to make a change to the source code in Haskell using GHCi?

I am new to Haskell and am using GHCi to edit and run Haskell files. For some reason, I am not able to edit the source code of the file. The behavior I am getting is extremely odd.
Below is a screenshot of what is happening. I am loading the file lec3.hs and am attempting to edit this file to add the following function: myfun = \w -> not w. For some reason, this function successfully runs when I call it immediately after: myfun False. I do not need to reload the file.
It is clear that the function is not being added to the source code. When I reload the file, I am getting an error stating that myfun does not exist.
Could someone help me understand why GHCi is behaving this way, and how to fix such behaviour? I have already spent an hour trying to figure this out. I would sincerely appreciate any help.
Typing things into GHCi isn't supposed to add them to the source. But if you have loaded a file into GHCi you can edit it using the :e command, and when you close the editor it will be automatically reloaded.
You can use :e filename.hs if you are dealing with more than one file and you need to specify.
Generally it's easier to work in a separate editor and just reload into GHCi with :r, but :e is occasionally useful.
To answer
Is it possible to edit a .hs file from GHCi?
It technically speaking is possible, since Haskell has like any other language file-IO operations. Concretely, appendFile allows you to add content to a file.
$ cat >> Foo.hs # Creating a simple Haskell file
foo :: Int
foo = 3
$ ghci Foo.hs
GHCi, version 8.2.2: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ :? for help
Loaded GHCi configuration from /home/sagemuej/.ghc/ghci.conf
Loaded GHCi configuration from /home/sagemuej/.ghci
[1 of 1] Compiling Main ( Foo.hs, interpreted )
Ok, one module loaded.
*Main> foo
3
*Main> appendFile "Foo.hs" $ "myfun = \\w -> not w"
*Main> :r
[1 of 1] Compiling Main ( Foo.hs, interpreted )
Ok, one module loaded.
*Main> myfun False
True
But this really is not a good way to edit files. It makes much more sense to have two windows open, one with a text editor and one with the REPL, i.e. with GHCi. It can be either two completely separate OS windows, or two sub-windows of your IDE or whatever, but in either case GHCi will be used only for evaluation and one-line prototyping, not for actually adding/editing code. (The one-line prototypes can be copy&pasted into the editor, if it helps.)

How to pass "args" while using Intellij IDEA [example list 3.11 in Odersky's Scala book (2nd Ed)]

I basically try to run the example 3.11 in Odersky's book (Programming in Scala). I am using Intellij IDE. While runing the code, the "else" branch got executed.
The screen capture is here:
The source is here in case you need it to try:
package ch3
import scala.io.Source
object l3p11 extends App{
def widthOfLength(s: String) = s.length.toString.length
if (args.length > 0){
val lines = Source.fromFile(args(0)).getLines().toList
val longestLine = lines.reduceLeft(
(a, b) => if (a.length > b.length) a else b
)
val maxWidth = widthOfLength(longestLine)
for (line <- lines){
val numSpaces = maxWidth - widthOfLength(line)
val padding = " " * numSpaces
println(padding + line.length + "|" + line)
}
}
else
Console.err.println("Please enter filename")
}
The reason, I think, is becuase I did not pass args correctly (say here I want to pass the source file l3p11.scala as the args). I tried several option, but have not find a way to pass the args correctly for the code to be executed in the "if" branch. There are two directions in my mind to resolve this problem:
1. Find the right way to pass args in Intellij IDE
Run Scala in commond line, a similar command such as
$ scala l3p11.scala l3p11.scala
should be able to pass the args correctly. But my current setting gives "bash: scala: command not found". I currently use scala REPL to run scala code following the set up given in Odersky's Coursera course on Scala. I think I need to change the set up in orde run scala directly, instead of using "sbt->console" to invoke the scala interpreter like what I am doing now.
Any suggestion on either direction (or other directions that I have not thought of) to resolve the problem is welcome.
Update 1:
Direction 2 works after I reinstall scala. (My to be corrected understanding is that the installation of sbt does not provide an executable binary of scala to be included in the environment list for Windows. Therefore, scala command cannot be found before). After installation of scala directly:
$ scala l3p11.scala l3p11.scala
gives the expected results. But I still have not figured out how to get this result with Intellij IDEA.
Update 2:
I revisited the "Program arguments" option after Joe's confirmation. The reason I was not be able to get it work before was that I only add "l3p11.scala". Adding the complete path from working directory "src/main/scala/ch3/l3p11.scala" solved the problem. The result is as following:
To pass command-line arguments when running a program in IntelliJ IDEA, use the "Edit Configurations …" menu item under "Run". Choose the entry for your main program. There's a "Program arguments" text field where you specify the arguments to pass to the program.
I'm not super familiar on how it will run on windows but if you are able to run it directly from the command line then I think you'll need to compile first, that's the scalac command. So:
$ scalac l3p11.scala
then you can run just with the class name, not sure if you would need quotes on the arg:
$ scala l3p11 l3p11.scala

How to get the path for openFile in Haskell?

I have the following program which throws a runtime exception:
import System.IO
main :: IO ()
main = do
handle <- openFile "palindrome.txt" ReadMode
input <- hGetContents handle
hClose handle
It type checks, but whenever I try to run main, I'll get an error:
What am I doing wrong?
Your current program uses a relative path. As such, the file must be in the same directory where you started GHCi. Given that your workspace is $HOME/Desktop/Haskell, it probably checks only for $HOME/Desktop/Haskell/palindrome.txt. If you want to use the palindrome.txt in $HOME/Desktop/Haskell/u03/3-1/`, you need to either use the absolute path in your code, or run GHCi in that directory.
Note that you can change the current directory in GHCi with :cd, so the following commands in GHCi should work:
Prelude> :cd /path/to/your/directory
Prelude> :l palindrom-a.hs
*Main> :main

Haskell error on text file as input on Mac

I have a Main.hs file with two functions.
Module Main where
import Data.List
main :: IO()
main = interact reverse
functionThatWorks = putStrLn "Ajax"
After I set the directory and load Main.hs I have no problem with calling functionThatWorks.
Except when I want to take a text file as input like so:
Main<in.txt or ./Main<in.txt
I get an error saying 'parse error on input 'in' '
Does anyone know I can make this work in the Terminal?
p.s. I use a Mac.
Unfortunately ghci doesn't understand input redirection like the shell does.
I would suggest running your program with runhaskell:
runhaskell Main.hs < in.txt

Create background process in windows without visible console window

How do I create a background process with Haskell on windows without a visible command window being created?
I wrote a Haskell program that runs backup processes periodically but every time I run it, a command window opens up to the top of all the windows. I would like to get rid of this window. What is the simplest way to do this?
You should really tell us how you are trying to do this currently, but on my system (using linux) the following snippet will run a command without opening a new terminal window. It should work the same way on windows.
module Main where
import System
import System.Process
import Control.Monad
main :: IO ()
main = do
putStrLn "Running command..."
pid <- runCommand "mplayer song.mp3" -- or whatever you want
replicateM_ 10 $ putStrLn "Doing other stuff"
waitForProcess pid >>= exitWith
Thanks for the responses so far, but I've found my own solution. I did try a lot of different things, from writing a vbs script as suggested to a standalone program called hstart. hstart worked...but it creates a separate process which I didn't like very much because then I can't kill it in the normal way. But I found a simpler solution that required simply Haskell code.
My code from before was a simple call to runCommand, which did popup the window. An alternative function you can use is runProcess which has more options. From peeking at the ghc source code file runProcess.c, I found that the CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag is set when you supply redirects for all of STDIN, STOUT, and STDERR. So that's what you need to do, supply redirects for those. My test program looks like:
import System.Process
import System.IO
main = do
inH <- openFile "in" ReadMode
outH <- openFile "out" WriteMode
runProcess "rsync.bat" [] Nothing Nothing (Just inH) (Just outH) (Just outH)
This worked! No command window again! A caveat is that you need an empty file for inH to read in as the STDIN eventhough in my situation it was not needed.
The simplest way I can think of is to run the rsync command from within a Windows Shell script (vbs or cmd).
I don't know anything about Haskell, but I had this problem in a C project a few months ago.
The best way to execute an external program without any windows popping up is to use the ShellExecuteEx() API function with the "open" verb. If ShellExecuteEx() is available to you in Haskell, then you should be able to achieve what you want.
The C code looks something like this:
SHELLEXECUTEINFO Info;
BOOL b;
// Execute it
memset (&Info, 0, sizeof (Info));
Info.cbSize = sizeof (Info);
Info.fMask = SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS | SEE_MASK_FLAG_NO_UI;
Info.hwnd = NULL;
Info.lpVerb = "open";
Info.lpFile = "rsync.exe";
Info.lpParameters = "whatever parameters you like";
Info.lpDirectory = NULL;
Info.nShow = SW_HIDE;
b = ShellExecuteEx (&Info);
if (b)
{
// Looks good; if there is an instance, wait for it
if (Info.hProcess)
{
// Wait
WaitForSingleObject (Info.hProcess, INFINITE);
}
}

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