Haskell Graphics Library

1
Haskell Graphics Library
Aim To create a graphics library for Haskell
which produces attractive graphics and provides a
flexible array of manipulation functions whilst
keeping into consideration the library will be
used for learning and therefore must be
understandable by people who are not experienced
at using Haskell.
Example
The Current Situation First year computer science
students at UKC are required to take a module in
Haskell, a functional programming language. In
this module students are taught how to use this
language in various ways, one of which is in the
form of manipulating an image. However the term
image here is meant as lists of strings of
ASCII characters or . which made up a
fairly simple image. The horse example shown
below
,
A simple scene constructed with the input, left
Example input used to construct image shown right
.......... ......... ......... .........
. ......... ....... ........ .......
... .......... .......... .......... ......
....

• Features
• Utilises PDF as its output type to produce
  rendered vector graphics
• Functionality for the creation of lines,
  rectangles, ellipses and polygons
• Uses RGB colour model to specify ranges of
  colours to objects
• Functionality for transformations such as
  translation, scaling and rotation.
• Input checking to avoid errors

It is clearly apparent here that the old version
(left) is less attractive than even a very simple
implementation of it in HGL (right).

• This graphics library is the work of Matthew
  Forrest for a third year research project.
• Created using HEAT ( Haskell Educational
  Advancement Tool ). Supervised by Olaf Chitil.