[Haskell-cafe] Eval forgotten unless type specified?

In this passage, after the seq call, :sprint reveals x and y to be evaluated: let x = 1 + 2 :: Int let y = x + 1 :sprint x :sprint y seq y () :sprint x :sprint y The above is a verbatim quote of Marlow's Concurrency book, chapter 2. In the below, however, :sprint shows them unevaluated both before and after the seq call. let x = 1 + 2 let y = x + 1 :sprint x :sprint y seq y () :sprint x :sprint y Why?