Re: [Haskell-cafe] Re: Wikipedia on first-class object

On 28 Dec 2007, at 8:42 AM, Cristian Baboi wrote:

On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:34:23 +0200, apfelmus wrote:

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Jules Bean wrote:

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Cristian Baboi wrote:

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But I guess it won't work because the compiler will optimize it and the call will disappear.

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say here.

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(That's the "world view on Haskell" issue I mean. I know this feeling with physics: "what the heck are they talking about, this is just mathematically wrong, ill-defined or otherwise void of contents?")

Let me ask you 3 simple questions. Can one use Haskell to make dynamically linked libraries (DLL on Windows, so on Linux) ?

Haskell 98, no. But GHC works fine.

If yes, what is in them ?

As has been said, object code. Which is why you can't call GHC outside of the IO monad.

If not, why not ?

Because it's not portable. These days, it is distressingly common to see the word `portable' used to mean `works on anything sufficiently willing to pretend it's a Unix'. This depresses me; I think it's a failure of imagination, mostly. jcc