2) In Python it is possible to import modules inside a function.
In Haskell something like:
joinPath' root name = joinPath [root, name] importing System.FilePath (joinPath)
In Python importing a module has totally different semantics from importing in Haskell. I runs the initialization code for the module & makes the names in that module available to you code. In Haskell modules are just namespace control, and you can always refer to names imported through import X through the syntax X.name. This means that the local import in Python solves two problems 1) making a name available locally. 2) running initialization code only when a specific function is called. Neither of those makes any sense for Haskell as far as I can tell. Immanuel