> SO I can replicate everything this DOES with off the shelf tooling (maybe). And like any setup for a new language, or development environment I may have to RTFM and fiddle.

You can't, because you can't program yet, or are still working on improving your programming skills by experimenting with functional programming languages. Why else would you be commenting on a starter development environment for Haskell?

> Will these things be a problem? How long before I run up against a wall with this? Am I going to kick myself over the 25 bucks in 2 weeks cause one of these is a show stopper for some common task in haskell?

If this thing teaches you how to code common tasks in Haskell for only $25 bucks, it'll be the best money you ever spent.

If $25 is a large enough sum of money to cause serious regrets over the coming weeks, then certainly you have my sympathies, but I would suggest it's not actually an issue of what the Haskell package does or doesn't do, it's a situation where you need to decide you're just not in the market for commercial software until your financial situation improves. As you say, there are free DIY alternatives.

Like you, I am also sick and tired of people trying to come up with easy-to-use tools for learning Haskell. I love the language, and feel that if someone wants to learn it in a "sandbox", then there's no point. I can't even imagine Haskell without network connections, as we all know that Haskell's main appeal lies in web services and systems-level programming.

This developer better think again before he gets my 20ish dollars!