ANNOUNCE: Helium, for learning Haskell

[Arjan van IJzendoorn]

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    Helium (for learning Haskell) 1.0
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We are pleased to announce the first public release of the
Helium system, consisting of a language, compiler and
interpreter designed especially for education in functional
programming. It is being developed at the Software
Technology group of the Institute of Information and
Computing Sciences of Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

CURRENT RELEASE

The language is a (large) subset of Haskell 98. Most notable
difference is the absence of type classes. Without type
classes, types are simpler and more specific type errors can
be given.

The compiler gives high-quality error messages with exact
locations and sometimes hints (e.g. in the case of
misspelled names). Warnings are given for unused parameters,
shadowing and more. The most sophisticated part is the type
checker which uses a novel constraint-based inferencer to
improve type error messages. The compiler generates portable
byte codes for the Lazy Virtual Machine (cf. JVM for Java)
resulting in a system that is a magnitude faster than Hugs.
The Helium interpreter "Hi" is a Hugs-like application which
is built on top of the compiler. Together these features
make Helium a fine tool for teaching environments.

We have experienced that friendlier compiler messages make
learning functional programming more fun for our students.

More information and downloads can be found at the Helium
homepage:

  http://www.cs.uu.nl/~afie/helium/index.html

FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS

- User manuals for the different tools
- (Closed world) type classes 
- A more visually pleasing and powerful interpreter 
- More libraries (e.g. GUI)
- Binary distributions for more platforms

With kind regards,
 
  the Helium team