Hi Immanuel,
2009/1/15 Immanuel Litzroth
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.
Well, how about extensible programs? XMonad uses run-time module loading to remain configurable. I think this approach is much better than the ill-defined, partially-specified configuration files used by e.g. Apache, wpa_supplicant, and other widely used programs. Cheers, Artyom Shalkhakov.