[GSoC 2025] Getting Started with GHC CodeWorld Update

[arpity22]

Hi everyone!

I’m Arpit Yadav, an undergraduate at IIT Kanpur. I’ve been learning Haskell for a couple of months now, and I’ve really enjoyed its expressiveness and the way it encourages clear, declarative thinking. The strong type system and functional paradigm have been fascinating to explore!

Given my enthusiasm for Haskell, I’d love to contribute to this project. I also have experience as a full-stack developer and believe I can bring value to the effort. I am currently looking through the GHC documentation. Could you suggest some starting points to get familiar with the current state of the project? Additionally, are there any beginner-friendly issues I could work on to gain a better understanding?

Looking forward to your guidance!

Best,
Arpit

[jaror]

Hi Arpit,

It’s great to see that you’re interested in the project! @cdsmith can perhaps give a more detailed response, but I can perhaps already give a few tips:

• The project is about CodeWorld, which is is on GitHub:

  • GitHub - google/codeworld: Educational computer programming environment using Haskell

• You are looking at documentation for a very old version of GHC. The latest version can be found here:

  • Welcome to the GHC User’s Guide — Glasgow Haskell Compiler 9.12.1 User's Guide

• For this project the most interesting parts of the GHC documentation are the parts about the JS and Web Assembly backends:

  • 14. FFI and the JavaScript Backend — Glasgow Haskell Compiler 9.12.1 User's Guide
  • 15. Using the GHC WebAssembly backend — Glasgow Haskell Compiler 9.12.1 User's Guide

• Here are some further references for these backends:

  • Finley McIlwaine - A detailed guide to using GHC's WebAssembly backend
  • Using GHC's JavaScript Backend in the Browser | IOG Engineering

One thing you can already start on is to try and make a small test application using (one of) these back ends.

Happy hacking!

[arpity22]

Thanks a lot! I will get started immediately

[arpity22]

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the radio silence this past week—academics took a lot out of me.

I’m thinking of using the backend for JS since I’m already familiar with it and the previous codebase uses GHCJS. I know WASM offers a performance boost, but is it significant enough that I should reconsider?

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Built a small test application using the backend for JS.
• The GHC version for the backend is 9.13.20250328.
• I’m considering using ghc-js compiler based on 9.12.2, but I’d love recommendations on versions that work well with libraries I might need (I am going to research this but would appreciate any tips).

One issue I ran into—I couldn’t build the current CodeWorld code, most likely due to the libraries being too old. I’m on Fedora 41, while I am not sure if building locally is necessary, I still would have liked to get it working.

Also, is there a different platform or Matrix channel for GSoC discussions? I couldn’t find any archived discussions for previous programs here and its kind of quiet.

If not, @cdsmith, what’s your preferred platform for project discussions? As a newcomer, having an active discussion space would help me stay focused.

Looking forward to your thoughts!