Haskell is a robust programming language that is known for its reliability and adaptability, but it's difficult to learn and utilize, creating a massive barrier to entry for software developers all over the world. In an effort to make the benefits of Haskell easier to access, Marc Scholten built the Integrated Haskell Platform, IHP. This new framework allows developers to build applications and programs with the security offered by Haskell, but without the challenging learning curve it has become known for.

Marc Scholten
Marc Scholten Marc Scholten

Haskell is fairly complex compared to other programming languages, and now, it's more accessible than ever. The inspiration for IHP came from Marc's extensive experience supporting the clients of his firm, digitally induced, in their software endeavors. Marc and his team quickly began to notice that large organizations were running into the same issues when trying to solve complex problems. Quality issues when using dynamic languages were constantly popping up and package-management issues were terrorizing businesses all over the globe.

IHP is a framework that focuses on the developer's experience; it's easy to work with, well-documented, and was created as a "batteries included framework", which means that it is ready to use as-is. IHP allows developers to quickly get familiar with Haskell and become productive. It features packages and components that make it usable immediately, instead of requiring major heavy lifting from the developers themselves.

Users of IHP are quick to see its value, with one customer saying, "IHP provides a "kitchen-sink" approach to their framework. Everything you might need to create fully-featured web apps is there and included. The Haskell language allows you to create type-safe apps where you are confident that the code works and will continue to work." For Marc, this type of feedback is the ultimate measure of success. When he took on the development of IHP in 2017, his major goal was to combine the advantages of Haskell with the ease of use of popular web frameworks like Ruby on the Rails or Django, and he succeeded.

At the end of June 2020, after multiple years of development, IHP was finally ready to be released as an open-source project on GitHub. Almost immediately, it was welcomed by the Haskell programming community. It grew quickly and eventually became more popular than other Haskell web frameworks such as Yesod. Now, it is the largest Haskell web framework and one of the largest open-source projects in the Haskell ecosystem.

The development of IHP wasn't the end of the road; on the contrary, it was just the beginning. The company that supports IHP, digitally induced, was founded by Marc to offer commercial products and services in the IHP landscape. Marc and his team at digitally induced help large organizations learn and adopt IHP. With the IHP Pro arm of digitally induced, clients can pair the open-source version of the framework with advanced features designed for commercial web applications. The IHP Enterprise portion of digitally induced offers consulting and support to businesses in all sectors as they adopt IHP.

When Marc began developing IHP at the young age of 19 years old, he had no way of knowing how successful the framework would be, but as a developer himself, he knew it would solve challenges faced by others in his field. As a teenager and young adult, Marc had already worked through numerous programming projects, becoming one of the youngest developers in his field. His early work helped Marc develop the skills he needed for his ultimate career success so far: IHP.

Up to this point, only the beta versions of IHP have been made available to the public, but before the end of 2022, the world will get to experience IHP version 1.0. The platform has been tested, implemented, and successfully used by a wide range of clients such as AppFolio, Gizra, Meta, Comhlan, and more. Its customers reach currently spans over 26 different countries, with the full release, Marc expects that number to shoot up. Not only did he successfully design and build a new framework, but he also opened up a new world of development along the way.