agreed

[ikiwiki.git] / doc / todo / rewrite_ikiwiki_in_haskell / discussion.mdwn

diff --git a/doc/todo/rewrite_ikiwiki_in_haskell/discussion.mdwn b/doc/todo/rewrite_ikiwiki_in_haskell/discussion.mdwn
index cf2725594b2e5061226c258e09a347f473849ad1..b6495194a4ab736565acee8b3464ad508c04ae09 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/todo/rewrite_ikiwiki_in_haskell/discussion.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/rewrite_ikiwiki_in_haskell/discussion.mdwn
@@ -15,11 +15,43 @@ Congratulations for demonstrating that April fools jokes can still be subtle
 
 -----
 
-I'm torn about this idea, if it's actually serious.  I'm very comfortable programming in Perl, and have written quite a few modules for IkiWiki, and it would be a huge pain to have to start from scratch all over again.
-On the other hand, this could be a motivation for me to learn Haskell.  My only encounter with Haskell has been a brief time when I was using the Xmonad window manager, but it looks like an interesting language. Functional programming is cool.
+I'm torn about this idea, if it's actually serious.  I'm very comfortable
+programming in Perl, and have written quite a few modules for IkiWiki, and
+it would be a huge pain to have to start from scratch all over again. On
+the other hand, this could be a motivation for me to learn Haskell.  My
+only encounter with Haskell has been a brief time when I was using the
+Xmonad window manager, but it looks like an interesting language.
+Functional programming is cool.
+
+There are a lot of interesting plusses for Haskell you note (in the parent
+page), but it's true that the idea is horribly daunting (as [[Joey]] said
+"If only I had a spare year").  Is there any way that you could "start
+small"?  Because nothing will ever happen if the task is too daunting to
+even start.
+
+> This seems destined to remain a thought experiment unless something like
+> that can be done, or I get a serious case of second system disease.
+> 
+> I've considered doing things like using the external plugin interface
+> to run a separate haskell program, which would allow implementing
+> arbitrary plugins in haskell (starting with a pandoc plugin..),
+> and could perhaps grow to subsume the perl code. However, this would
+> stick us with the perl data structures, which are not a very good fit
+> for haskell. --[[Joey]]
+
+On further thought... perhaps it would be easier to fork or contribute to
+an existing Haskell-based wiki, such as <a
+href="http://jaspervdj.be/hakyll">Hakyll</a>?
 
-There are a lot of interesting plusses for Haskell you note (in the parent page), but it's true that the idea is horribly daunting (as [[Joey]] said "If only I had a spare year").  Is there any way that you could "start small"?  Because nothing will ever happen if the task is too daunting to even start.
+--[[KathrynAndersen]]
 
-On further thought... perhaps it would be easier to fork or contribute to an existing Haskell-based wiki, such as <a href="http://jaspervdj.be/hakyll">Hakyll</a>?
+> As far as I know there are no other wikis (haskell or otherwise)
+> that are wiki compilers. Since we know from experience that dealing
+> with static compilation turns out to be one of the trickiest parts of
+> ikiwiki, I'm doubtful about trying to bolt that into one. --[[Joey]] 
 
---[[KathrynAndersen]]
+>> Haykll isn't a wiki but it does do static compilation. The missing
+>> parts are: the web interface, the wiki link processing, and page
+>> dependency stuff. -- [[tychoish]]
+
+>>> (nods) Which is why I suggested it.  I'm not sure whether it would be easier to "bolt on" those things than static compilation, but it could be worth looking at, at least. -- [[KathrynAndersen]]