Haskell Tutorial

Offline Reading

You can read this tutorial directly on GitHub if you would like, but if you want to read it offline, here's how:

First, copy this repository to your machine. To do so, first install Git. Then open a command-line shell, navigate to where you would like the repository's directory to be created, and run the following command:

git clone https://github.com/Rotaerk/haskellTutorial 

This will create a new folder for the repository called haskellTutorial. If any updates to the tutorial are made, you can update your local copy by running this from the command-line within that repository folder:

git pull

Second, you will need a tool that renders Markdown, the format this tutorial is written in.

One option is to use Visual Studio Code, suggested below for writing Haskell code. It supports displaying a preview of Markdown files, so you can read the tutorial and write code all in the same place.

Another option is to use the Python utility called Grip. A benefit of this tool is that it renders Markdown exactly as GitHub does, so I used it to preview my changes while writing this tutorial. If you would like to use it, you will first need to install Python, and then follow the installation instructions for Grip. Once it's installed, open a command-line shell, navigate into the repository directory that git created earlier, and run grip. It should give you a localhost URL, which you can open in a web browser to view the rendered Markdown.

Tool Installation

It is recommended that you actually write, compile, and run the provided haskell code as instructed throughout the tutorial. To do this, you will need the following tools:

1. A text editor, preferably one with syntax highlighting support for Haskell code. If you need a suggestion, try Visual Studio Code.
2. Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) - This translates Haskell code into executable programs.
3. Cabal - This manages packages of Haskell code and utilizes GHC to build executables from them. It will be the main tool we use.

To obtain GHC and Cabal, go to the official Haskell site's downloads page and follow its instructions. You will not need the Stack tool, so you can skip the instructions for installing that. Multiple installation options are provided, but I recommend the Chocolatey instructions for Windows, and the GHCup instructions for Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD. An alternative on Linux is to use the Nix package manager: With Nix installed, just run nix-shell from the root directory of this repository, which contains a shell.nix file. This will start a shell in which GHC and cabal are available for use.

Chapters

1. Hello World
2. Procedural Programming