On 21 May 2004 01:07, John Sharley wrote:

I note this remark on the Microsoft Research site (http://research.microsoft.com/projects/ilx/fsharp.aspx) <quote> Purely functional languages like Haskell are excellent within certain niches, but unfortunately some simple programming exercises can quickly turn into problems that require a PhD. to solve. </quote>

Are the Microsoft Research people working on GHC or anyone else on this list also of this opinion? If so, why?

What if anything does the quoted remark mean for the prospects of seeing a production Haskell compiler from Microsoft?

It's possible that the remark is referring to the use of monads to do IO in Haskell, but I wouldn't read too much into it. Cheers, Simon