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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

About this blog

This blog will be about my experience with attempting to write javascript games in haskell. So far I have very little experience in javascript and in haskell. From my first attempts in haskell I can already tell that this will not be easy, as haskell has a complete different approach to programming than languages like C++ (with which I have much more experience).

Why JavaScript and why Haskell?

I am not attempting to write huge games, I want to write small games which are fun to play. An javascript enabled browser seems to be the perfect platform. Games running in the browser need no extra installation and are accessible from almost every computer. This way it is convenient for the audience to reach the games.

But why Haskell? A while ago I encountered haskell for the first time and I was fascinated. The mathematical approach, the functional programming and the lazy evaluation intrigue me. I tend to have no big difficulties in picking up new programming languages, but with haskell this is a different sroty. Also I have read already quite a lot about haskell, there is still a lot of concepts I do not yet understand. Or when I understand them in principle I have no Idea how they would be implemented.

Now it seems that these would be reasons to abandon haskell, and focus on another language that is more comfortable to learn (javascript for example). But I like the challenge and I feel like there will be a big benefit from learning haskell. What I have already seen (and understood) from haskell I like.

There is a lot of opinions and explanations of why one should use haskell in the internet. Just google Why Haskell or look here: Why Haskell matters

The intention of the blog

Because I am not an experienced haskell programmer, this blog will not present much of my own ideas (at least not in the beginning). Instead I will document my experience with the attempt to write JavaScript games in haskell.

All of the information (or at least most if it) I found in the internet or by asking people mailing-lists. I will try to always mark the places where I gather my information.

The intent of this blog will be to make it easier for other with the same goal to get started with javascript games written in haskell. It is an attempt of me to give back to the community. I will try to make the posts very tutorial style. Sometimes I will redirect to other pages when I find it unnecessary to repeat the information here that can be found there.

Edit1: Rewrote with pandoc

Creative Commons License
Writing JavaScript games in Haskell by Nathan Hüsken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Germany License.

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