Am Mittwoch, 1. Februar 2006 11:49 schrieb Bulat Ziganshin:
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i had one idea, what is somewhat corresponding to his discussion:
make a strict Haskell dialect. implement it by translating all expressions of form "f x" into "f $! x" and then going to the standard (lazy) haskell translator. the same for data fields - add to all field definitions "!" in translation process. then add to this strict Haskell language ability to _explicitly_ specify lazy fields and lazy evaluation, for example using this "~" sign
what it will give? ability to use Haskell as powerful strict language, what is especially interesting for "real-world" programmers. i have found myself permanently fighting against the lazyness once i starting to optimize my programs. for the newcomers, it just will reduce learning path - they don't need to know anything about lazyness
Since laziness often allows you to solve problems so elegantly, I'm really scared of the idea of a "Strict Haskell"! :-( Is laziness really so "unreal" that real-world programmers have to see it as an enemy which they have to fight against? In fact, I was kind of shocked as I read in Simon Peyton Jones' presentation "Wearing the hair shirt" [1] that in his opinion "Lazyness doesn't really matter".
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Best wishes, Wolfgang [1] http://research.microsoft.com/Users/simonpj/papers/haskell-retrospective/