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

Show HN: IHP v1.0 – Batteries-included web framework built on Haskell and Nix(ihp.digitallyinduced.com)

132 points by _query 3 years ago | 39 comments

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 3 years ago | |

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)?

_query 3 years ago | | |

The IDE is mostly designed as an extension to an editor heavy workflow (e.g. I use Sublime + VIM to build IHP itself). So it's unlikely to work well with a Chromebook. A workaround might be to use the GitPod integration for a web based code editor.

The IDE is btw entirely optional and everything can be done via code. E.g. all operations done via the visual Schema Designer are saved in the Application/Schema.sql file. That file can be edited from a code editor as you want. All operations in the schema designer operate on the AST of the parsed Schema.sql file.

jalino23 3 years ago |

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

_query 3 years ago |

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 3 years ago |

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 3 years ago | |

Thanks! :) I appreciate your feedback

desireco42 3 years ago | | |

Here is more feedback. Installation of everything is a little bit hairy... It didn't work in my fish shell but I had to switch to zsh to make it work...

When you edit database, instead of waiting for you to click update, maybe you can prompt user after update... "Do you want to run migrations?"

Small things like that.

Overall I love functional aspects of it and will be playing more in days to come.

njaremko 3 years ago |

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 3 years ago | |

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 3 years ago | |

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

_query 3 years ago | | |

IHP is really easy to package with nix nowadays. In fact the official docker building also just uses `pkgs.dockerTools.buildImage` and calls nix-build :) Most people with nix experience can easily figure out how to do exactly the same thing as the "official" way.

xrd 3 years ago |

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

_query 3 years ago | |

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 3 years ago |

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 3 years ago | |

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.

mgomez 3 years ago |

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 3 years ago | |

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

belmont_sup 3 years ago | |

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

weatherlight 3 years ago | | |

Same. Thus far its been pretty easy to follow along and I haven't ran into any show stopping issues.

theCodeStig 3 years ago | |

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

cosmic_quanta 3 years ago | |

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 3 years ago | |

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

ilrwbwrkhv 3 years ago |

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

_query 3 years ago | |

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

ilrwbwrkhv 3 years ago | | |

The jsx seem not to have highlighting or completions?

tobias2014 3 years ago |

How does this compare with Yesod?