IRC channel
Internet Relay Chat is a worldwide text chat service with many thousands of users among various irc networks.
The Freenode IRC network used to host the very large #haskell channel, and we've had up to 1046 concurrent users, making the channel consistently one of the most popular of the thousands of channels on freenode. One famous resident is Lambdabot, another is hpaste (see the Bots section below).
As of May 19 2021, the #haskell channel and associated channels began to migrate to https://libera.chat/ . This process is still underway, but at this point it is recommended to join the channel there, and not freenode.
The IRC channel can be an excellent place to learn more about Haskell, and to just keep in the loop on new things in the Haskell world. Many new developments in the Haskell world first appear on the irc channel.
Since 2009, the Haskell channel has grown large enough that we've split it in two parts:
- #haskell, for all the usual things
- #haskell-in-depth , for those seeking in depth, or more theoretical discussion
As always, #haskell remains the primary place for new user questions.
Getting there
If you point your irc client to irc.libera.chat:6697 (TLS) and then join the #haskell channel, you'll be there. Alternately, you can try a client (some listed at [1] ) which connects inside the browser.
Example, using irssi:
$ irssi -c irc.libera.chat:6697 -n myname -w mypassword /join #haskell
Tip, if you're using Emacs to edit your Haskell sources then why not use it to chat about Haskell? Check out ERC, The Emacs IRC client. Invoke it like this and follow the commands:
M-x erc-select ... /join #haskell
Matrix
If you use Matrix, you can join the #haskell-space:matrix.org Space, where you'll find most Haskell Matrix rooms (look for the "Haskell IRC Channels" sub-Space for IRC rooms).
Principles
The #haskell channel is a very friendly, welcoming place to hang out, teach and learn. The goal of #haskell is to encourage learning and discussion of Haskell, functional programming, and programming in general. As part of this we welcome newbies, and encourage teaching of the language.
Part of the #haskell success comes from the fact that the community is quite tight knit — we know each other — it's not just a homework channel. As a result, many collaborative projects have arisen between Haskell irc channel citizens.
To maintain the friendly, open culture, the following is required:
- Low to zero tolerance for ridiculing questions. Insulting new users is unacceptable. New Haskell users should feel entirely comfortable asking questions.
- Helpful answers should be encouraged with
name++karma points, in public, as a reward for providing a good answer.
- Avoid getting frustrated by negative comments and ambiguous questions. Approach them by asking for details (i.e. Socratic questioning), rather than challenging the competence of the writer (ad hominem). As the channel grows, we see a diverse range of people with different programming backgrounds getting accustomed to Haskell. Be patient and take satisfaction from spreading knowledge.
History
The #haskell channel appeared in the late 90s, and really got going in early 2001, with the help of Shae Erisson (aka shapr).
Related channels
In addition to the main Haskell channel there are also:
Language/Country specific
Language channels are consolidated into the "#haskell-" namespace. Eventually the language channels below listed with "#haskell." will have to move.
| Channel | Purpose |
|---|---|
| #haskell-br | Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR) speakers |
| #haskell.cz | Czech speakers (UTF-8) |
| #haskell.de | German speakers |
| #haskell.dut | Dutch speakers |
| #haskell.es | Spanish speakers |
| #haskell.fi | Finnish speakers |
| #haskell-fr | French speakers (note the hyphen! in the channel name) |
| #haskell.hr | Croatian speakers |
| #haskell-id | Indonesian speakers (note the hyphen! in the channel name) |
| #haskell-it | Italian speakers (note the hyphen! in the channel name) |
| #haskell.jp | Japanese speakers |
| #haskell.scandinavian | Scandinavian speakers |
| #haskell-kr | Korean speakers |
| #haskell.no | Norwegian speakers |
| #haskell.pt | Portuguese speakers |
| #haskell-pl | Polish speakers |
| #haskell.ru | Russian speakers. Seems that most of them migrated to Jabber conference (haskell@conference.jabber.ru). |
| #haskell_ru | Russian speakers again, in UTF-8. For those, who prefer good ol' IRC channel with a lambdabot. |
| #haskell-ro | Romanian speakers. |
| #haskell.se | Swedish speakers |
| #haskell-tw | Chinese speakers (mainly in Taiwan) |
| #haskell.vn | Vietnamese speakers |
| #chicagohaskell | Chicago Haskell programmers group |
Platform-specific
| Channel | Purpose |
|---|---|
| #haskell-beginners | Haskell people focused on teaching and learning Haskell, not just beginners. |
| #haskell-offtopic | Haskell people talking about anything except Haskell itself (no TLS required) |
| #haskell-blah | Haskell people talking about anything except Haskell itself (TLS required) |
| #haskell-game | The hub for Haskell-based game development |
| #haskell-in-depth | slower paced discussion of use, theory, implementation etc with no monad tutorials! |
| #haskell-iphone | Haskell-based iPhone development |
| #haskell-apple | projects that target iOS or OS X using Haskell. |
| #haskell-lisp | Haskell Lisp - projects that are creating Lisps written in Haskell, or Haskell implementations written in Lisps. |
| #haskell-llvm | For projects using Haskell and LLVM |
| #haskell-overflow | Overflow conversations |
| #haskell-web | Friendly, practical discussion of haskell web app/framework/server development |
| #haskell-robotics | Discussion about the use of Haskell for robotics applications. |
| #arch-haskell | Arch Linux/ specific Haskell conversations |
| #fedora-haskell | Fedora Haskell SIG |
| #gentoo-haskell | Gentoo/Linux specific Haskell conversations |
Projects using haskell
| Channel | Purpose |
|---|---|
| #darcs | Darcs revision control system |
| #diagrams | Diagrams EDSL |
| #hackage | Haskell's software distribution infrastructure |
| #haskell-cryptography | Discussions about the Haskell Cryptography toolkit |
| #haskell-lens | Lens discussions |
| #haskell-servant | Servant web framework discussions |
| #haskell-stack | Stack discussions |
| #happs | Happstack web framework |
| #hledger | hledger accounting tools and library |
| #leksah | Leksah IDE for Haskell development |
| #snowdrift | Snowdrift.coop Yesod-based web platform for funding free/libre/open works, welcomes Haskell volunteer devs including beginners |
| #snapframework | Snap web framework |
| #xmonad | Xmonad tiling window manager |
| #yesod | Yesod web framework |
| #yampa | Yampa Arrowized FRP |
Logs
Logs are kept at http://tunes.org/~nef/logs/haskell/
Bots
There are various bots on the channel. Their names and usage are described here.
lambdabot
Lambdabot is both the name of a software package and a bot on the channel. The bot is operated by IRC user int-e and provides many useful services for visitors to the IRC channel. You can interact with it in a private chat or publicly in any channel where it appears (#haskell and a number of others). It is available as a haskell package and can be integrated into ghci. Details on the software are found on a separate wiki page.
Here is its interface for the IRC user:
lambdabot's commands are prepended by a '@' sign.
| Command | Usage |
|---|---|
| @help | display help to other commands, but help text is not available for all commands. |
| @where TOPIC (aliases: @what, @url) @where ? @where+ TOPIC NEWTEXT @where+ TOPIC |
show brief info about some TOPIC list some useful topics (paste, cabalstackhelp, ...) set/update a topic (check for collisions first with @where TOPIC) delete a topic |
| @type EXPR or ':t' EXPR | shows the type of an expression |
| @kind TYPECONSTRUCTOR | shows the kind of a type constructor |
| @run EXPR or '>' EXPR | evaluates EXPR |
| @pl FUNCTION | shows a pointfree version of FUNCTION |
| @pointful FUNCTION or '@unpl' FUNCTION | shows a 'pointful' version of FUNCTION |
| @tell <nick> <msg> -- same as @ask | Next time <nick> speaks in channel they will be notified they have a message pending and how to receive it. |
See also:
- http://silicon.int-e.eu/lambdabot/State/where - @where db snapshot, updated every few minutes
- https://github.com/simonmichael/lambdabot-where - git repo and .tsv version of the @where db, updated occasionally
yahb
If lambdabot doesn't cut it for you, there is a bot called yahb which runs your request in an actual GHCi prompt, so you can use IO.
Try e.g. % readFile "/proc/self/environ"
hackage
The hackage bot, when running, provides real-time notifications of new package uploads to Hackage.
Locations
To get an overview of where everybody on the channel might be, physically, please visit Haskell user locations.