User-defined rules made simple with functional programming

Abstract

To be successful, any new business information system must address the needs of business users, and have a short 'time-to-value'. Depending on the requirements, the appropriate tools and techniques would vary. Sometimes a good way to meet the needs of business users is by providing them with a domain-specific language (DSL) in which they can model their problems or seek solutions. In this paper, we discusses our experience of an industrial project for the development of a corporate information system. A small DSL has been created using the Haskell functional language. The DSL has given business users the required degree of flexibility and control. The development was completed on time, and has confirmed Haskell's expressive power and the high performance of its compiled code. We also argue that Haskell is relevant to parallel Big Data processing, and to Decision Modelling applications. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.