Let's walk through the basics of getting set up to use the PureScript compiler purs, and its interactive mode purs repl.
We'll start with the installation of the compiler and Pulp build tool, and then go through the basic usage of purs repl, working towards a solution of problem 1 from Project Euler.
You'll need Node.js and npm and to be able to install global packages to proceed.
The Purescript compiler (purs) can be installed with npm:
npm install -g purescript
(It can also be installed from Hackage, or by downloading the latest binary bundle for your OS. If you do so, make sure the purs executable is on your $PATH.)
PureScript's core libraries are configured to use the Pulp build tool, and packages are available in the Bower registry.
If you don't have Pulp and Bower installed, install them now:
npm install -g pulp bower
Create a new project in an empty directory using pulp init:
pulp init
Your directory should now contain the following files:
bower.json- contains library dependency informationbower_components/- a directory for installed dependenciessrc/Main.purs- Entry point module for your projecttest/Main.purs- An empty test suite
At this point, you should be able to build the project and run the tests:
pulp build
pulp test
You should see output similar to the following:
* Building project in /Users/paf31/Documents/Code/purescript/pulp-test
* Build successful. Running tests...
You should add some tests.
* Tests OK.
If everything was built successfully, and the tests ran without problems, then the last line should state "Tests OK".
Dependencies can be installed using Bower. We will be using the purescript-lists library shortly, so install it now:
bower install purescript-lists --save
PSCi is the interactive mode of PureScript. It is useful for working with pure computations, and for testing ideas.
Open PSCi by typing pulp repl at the command line. Pulp will create a file in your directory called .purs-repl, which contains instructions to PSCi to load your modules and dependencies. If you invoke the PSCi executable directly, you would need to load these files by hand.
PSCi, version 0.12.0
Type :? for help
import Prelude
>
As the introduction indicates, you can type :? to see a list of commands:
The following commands are available:
:? Show this help menu
:quit Quit PSCi
:reload Reload all imported modules while discarding bindings
:clear Discard all imported modules and declared bindings
:browse <module> See all functions in <module>
:type <expr> Show the type of <expr>
:kind <type> Show the kind of <type>
:show import Show all imported modules
:show loaded Show all loaded modules
:paste paste Enter multiple lines, terminated by ^D
:complete <prefix> Show completions for <prefix> as if pressing tab
Further information is available on the PureScript documentation repository:
--> https://github.com/purescript/documentation/blob/master/guides/PSCi.md
We will use a selection of these commands during this tutorial.
Start by pressing the Tab key to use the autocompletion feature. You will see a collection of names of functions from the Prelude which are available to use.
To see the type of one of these values, first import the appropriate module using the import command. pulp init configures .purs-repl to install Prelude automatically, so you won't have to do it yourself.
Next, use the :type command, followed by a space, followed by the name of the value:
> :type map
forall a b f. Functor f => (a -> b) -> f a -> f b
> import Data.List
> :type zip
forall a b. List a -> List b -> List (Tuple a b)
We will be using some of the functions from the Prelude and Data.List modules, so make sure you have imported those by using the import keyword:
import Prelude
import Data.List
Note that using Tab to autocomplete names can be a useful time-saving device in psci.
The following problem is taken from Project Euler:
If we list all the natural numbers below 10 that are multiples of 3 or 5, we get 3, 5, 6 and 9. The sum of these multiples is 23.
Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000.
We can solve this problem neatly using functions and function composition, directly in the REPL.
Let's start by listing all of the natural numbers below 1000 as a list. We can do this using the range function from Data.List:
> range 0 999
You should see a list with 1000 elements printed to the command line.
This value can be given a name:
> ns = range 0 999
Now let's filter out all of those elements which do not meet the criterion. We can use the filter function from Data.List, by providing a predicate function as its first argument:
> multiples = filter (\n -> mod n 3 == 0 || mod n 5 == 0) ns
You can see the result by evaluating multiples if you like, or even check its type:
> multiples
(0 : 3 : 5 : 6 : ...
> :type multiples
List Int
Now we need to find the sum of the multiples list, to complete the solution. We can use the sum function from the Data.Foldable module.
> import Data.Foldable
> sum multiples
233168
When you have finished using PSCi, type :quit to quit:
> :quit
See ya!
Now that we've seen how to use the REPL to reach the answer, let's move our solution into a source file and compile it.
Create a new text file src/Euler.purs and copy the following code:
module Euler where
import Prelude
import Data.List (range, filter)
import Data.Foldable (sum)
ns = range 0 999
multiples = filter (\n -> mod n 3 == 0 || mod n 5 == 0) ns
answer = sum multiplesIt is possible to load this file directly into the REPL and to continue working:
pulp repl
> import Euler
> answer
233168
> :quit
See ya!
Alternatively, we can use Pulp to compile our new module to JavaScript:
pulp build
This will compile each module present in src/ into a separate file in the output/ directory.
The compiler will display several warnings about missing type declarations. In general it is considered good practice to provide explicit type signatures. In this guide, they are left out for brevity. In the absence of type signatures, the PureScript compiler infers types automatically but will remind us to consider adding them.
To test our code, we'll use the purescript-assert library:
bower i purescript-assert --save
Modify the test/Main.purs file, and add the following code:
module Test.Main where
import Prelude
import Euler (answer)
import Test.Assert (assert)
main = do
assert (answer == 233168)Our "test suite" is just a single assertion that the answer value equals the correct integer. In a real test suite, we might use the Effect monad to compose multiple tests in our main function.
Run the tests using pulp test, and you should hopefully see "Tests OK" in the last line.
We can modify the main function in the src/Main.purs module to print our result to the console:
module Main where
import Prelude
import Euler (answer)
import Effect.Console (log)
main = do
log ("The answer is " <> show answer)The pulp run command can be used to compile and run the Main module:
> pulp run
* Building project in pulp-test
* Build successful.
The answer is 233168
If you're new to typed functional programming, your next stop should be PureScript by Example, which will walk you through learning PureScript by solving practical problems. (Note: At the time of writing, Purescript by Example is compatible with the 0.11.x version of the compiler)
If you are already familiar with an ML-family language, like Haskell or Elm, PureScript by Example should still be appropriate as a starting point, but you may alternatively want to start by browsing the language reference in the documentation repository instead. The language reference gives a more brief, reference-style description of the language, and is aimed at those who are already somewhat familiar with typed functional programming. There is also a Differences from Haskell page which Haskell programmers will find useful.
New PureScript programmers are also encouraged to spend some time browsing Pursuit, which hosts generated API documentation for PureScript libraries. In particular it is worth familiarising yourself with the core libraries (i.e., those which are hosted under the purescript organisation on GitHub), and especially the prelude, as these provide many basic concepts which are frequently useful for writing programs.