Integrating interactive tools using concurrent haskell and synchronous events

Abstract

In this paper we describe how existing interactive tools can be integrated using Concurrent Haskell and synchronous events. The base technology is a higher-order approach to concurrency as in CML extended with a framework for handling external events of the environment. These events are represented as first class synchronous events to achieve a uniform, composable approach to event handling. Adaptors are interposed between the external event sources and the internal set of listening agents to achieve this degree of abstraction. A substantially improved integration framework compared to existing technology (such as for example the combination of Tcl/Tk with expect) is then provided. With this basis it is for example possible to wrap a GUI around the hugs interpreter with very little work required.