HTTP client in Haskell

#programming #haskell

To try to make sense of this, I decided to write a "simple" http client in Haskell in as many styles as I could think of:

import Network.HTTP
import Control.Applicative

url = "http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell"

--  Imperative style
fetch_1 = do
    rsp <- Network.HTTP.simpleHTTP (getRequest url)
    body <- getResponseBody rsp
    return (take 1000 body)

--  With Functors' fmap
fetch_2 = do
    rsp <- Network.HTTP.simpleHTTP (getRequest url)
    fmap (take 1000) (getResponseBody rsp)

--  With Applicative's >>=
fetch_3 = fmap (take 1000) (Network.HTTP.simpleHTTP (getRequest url) >>= getResponseBody)

--  "fmap f x" is the same as "pure f <*> x" (Applicative's law)
fetch_4 = pure (take 1000) <*> (Network.HTTP.simpleHTTP (getRequest url) >>= getResponseBody)

--  "pure f <*> x" is the same as "f <$> x"
fetch_5 = (take 1000) <$> (Network.HTTP.simpleHTTP (getRequest url) >>= getResponseBody)

It's a long time since I found so many new concepts while studying a new programming language...