Haskell systems have traditionally provided a command line user interface for interacting with the interpreter/compiler (Hugs, or GHCi). This may not be the most efficient method for developing code. The Isabelle theorem prover provides an emacs binding allowing tight coupling of the edit-compile loop, and seems to speed up the development of code.

The goal of this project is to develop or adapt user interface ideas to create a new user interface to Haskell. Whether embedded in an editor, or command line based, this should be aimed at power users familiar with Haskell. The existing interface, GHCi, can be used as a starting point to understand the interaction of interface and compiler, in the context of GHC. The emphasis should be on fast and efficient interaction with the compiler, not creating a large, complex graphical interfaces. You have free range to design a new, powerful user interface!

• Core requirements:
  • At minimum you should implement a new keyboard-based interface to a Haskell compiler: whether that is GHC or NHC or something else. A variety of useful functions should be provided, with at least some of the abilities of the current GHCi.
• Extra tasks for the ambitious:
  • This is a flexible topic, with strong encouragment for radical and innovative user interface ideas. How powerful can you make this?
  • Some additional suggestions:
    • cscope-like support for jumping to library declarations?
    • syntax highlighting

• General paper on theorem prover user interfaces, which seem to be more advanced than those for Haskell : Functional Design and Implementation of Graphical User Interfaces for Theorem Provers
• HaRe, the Haskell refactorer, which has emacs and vim support.
• The Visual Studio Project looks to develop Haskell compiler/language support for an existing IDE.
• Haskell tools from the programatica project
• Some references to syntax-directed editors: here, and here, also here.
• A lot of references for building GUIs in Haskell
• cscope, a developer's tool for browsing source code.
• Kdevelop is gaining some Haskell support, slowly. See here for the current Haskell status, and this thread on the Haskell mailing list.
• Apple's Interface Builder is a system for building GUIs.
• A Haskell binding to ncurses is here.