A Front-End for Daison

Abstract

Daison is a database written in the functional programming language Haskell. It has no built-in visual representation of data and using it in an interactive Haskell environment such as GHCi is inconvenient since it requires boilerplate code. Our work presents an application that provides an alternative interactive environment that both removes the boilerplate code the user currently needs to write and displays query results in a table format. The application aims to be user-friendly and provide an experience similar to GHCi. It is written in Haskell and uses the Glasgow Haskell Compiler as a library. Automated tests are in place for ease of maintainability, though in a limited capacity. Manual testing was used to verify that requirements were fulfilled. Findings from usability testing, carried out in two iterations with a total of nine participants, suggest the application was well received. While fully supporting functionality provided by Daison, there remain a range of improvements that can further enhance the user experience. Examples of such improvements include better table formatting and the addition of a graphical user interface.