Setting up Haskell

GHC and the build-tool cabal are already set up on CSE machines, but they are not configured correctly and may fail to build your assignments.

In order to avoid build troubles, and to make sure everyone is using the same set of dependencies, we have set up an appropriate version of GHC and associated tools in the course account. To use it, type 3141 into a CSE terminal:

$ 3141
newclass starting new subshell for class COMP3141...

For the assignments, the cabal build tool is available and has been configured to work with a shared package database for all COMP3141 students.

We recommend installing the stack build tool for Haskell. Once this is done, the entire compiler toolchain can be installed just by typing stack setup. This should work on Linux, Windows and Mac. Alternatively, the compiler and toolchain can be installed from distribution package managers on Linux, but these are often out of date or configured incorrectly.

Typing stack repl should open ghci and stack exec ghc can be used to run ghc.

All assignments and exercises will come with build instructions. If you are using this setup, follow the instructions for stack users.