[Haskell-cafe] Tools for Haskell and COM

[Krasimir Angelov]

> There's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem here; the COM tools are not well
> maintained, so that discourages use, which in turn  makes it less rewarding
> to work on them.  What I don't know is the level of suppressed demand: if
> there were good tools, would lots of people start using them?

I think it will be beneficial for many Windows user if there was a
good Haskell to COM integration. HDirect can be a real nightmare for a
large projects. The first step could be to build a new COM library
designed in more FFI addendum fashion.
I already have started the first step with:

http://darcs.haskell.org/packages/hscom/

It is far from complete of course. The second step should be to
reimplement the IDL->Haskell translator. The existing translator often
generate code that isn't type correct and even if you change the code
by hand there is still a chance to have an implementation errors which
can't be captured from the typechecker. The whole task isn't that hard
but still requires a volunteer willing to spend 2-3 months of full
time work.

Regards,
  Krasimir