VSCode

haskell-template (https://github.com/srid/haskell-template) is a template Git repository for ready-made, fully reproducible and friendly Haskell development using Nix. It comes with full IDE support in VSCode (and other editors with LSP support). See Philosophy for what’s (and why it is) included.

For VSCode support, see https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=haskell.haskell

The carbon does suffer a bit with heavy workloads, such as some long compilation (eg: GHCJS) tasks, IDE heavylifting (haskell-language-server) or when using complex (bloated) web apps. Some of those, such as Nix compilation, can be offloaded to my P71 workstation at home (via manual ssh, VSCode remote ssh or distributed build).

My next computer, if I choose to buy one in ~3 years, would likely be similar to the X1C7 but with a bit more performance (assuming battery life does not suffer); i.e., if I were to make this decision again, I’d consider Thinkpad X1E or P1^* - but with integrated graphics (nvidia has poor support on Linux). That said, I still use the Carbon as my primary computer, and use VSCode remote to shift much of the develoment heavylifting to the P71 workstation at home.

Data loss in Syncthing is not uncommon. Always use Syncthing in conjunction with Git for important documents, like 📓 Zettelkasten. VSCode extensions like this facilitate “saving” files to Git more often.

I create new Haskell libraries and applications using Nix, along with IDE support in VSCode as follows.

GNOME runs on NixOS by default using Wayland, however Peek works only in X. For the Ema demo, I recorded a short screencast spawning two windows, VSCode and web browser, as follows:

If you are feeling adventurous consider getting acquainted with Nix, which in turns allows you to leverage haskell-template for bootstraping Haskell projects with full IDE support in VSCode. This works on Linux, macOS and Windows (via WSL) without having to install dependencies other than Nix itself. In my opinion, this is the best way to set up a Haskell development environment if you are willing to approach the learning curve of Nix with alacritty.

While you may use any text editor with language-server support, we will use VSCode because it is generally the easiest way to get started.

Your Cabal project lives at ./xmonad-config … and, if you followed the instructions in Scaffold a Haskell project w/ IDE support + Nix to setup IDE configuration, you can simply launch VSCode using code ./xmonad-config to start editing your configuration.