I have a question about pattern-matching. In the Haskell-report it is not postulated, that pattern matching has to be exhaustive. Would it be possible at all to implement an algorithm, which checks Haskell-style patterns for exhaustiveness? What kinds of complication can be expected? Maybe you have some pointers to other resources about this topic.

GHC tries to do so, but sometimes gets it wrong. See the -fwarn-incomplete-patterns flag. We'd appreciate it if someone could overhaul this code - it's been on the wish list for a long time. Cheers, Simon