On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 7:43 AM, Louis Wasserman
Oh, god, so much to respond to...heh.
You did request feedback back there, didn't you :P
As does Python. In Python, though, the PQ implementation is not a built-in class in the default namespace (as are dict and set). Rather, it is one of the "batteries included" libraries that come with Python. I think that's the right place for it in Haskell, too.
I don't know Python, but according to Wikipedia, dict and set are built into the language. I don't think it's a fair comparison: set and dict in Python seem to have a role almost as ubiquitous as [] in Haskell, much more
It's not really the same. pqueue is not in the built-in namespace in python, that's like the Prelude in haskell. pqueue *is* in the default library, which every python installation will have since it comes with the default download, this is what's meant by "batteries included". So that's like containers: you have to explicitly import it, but you shouldn't worry about installations that don't have it because it comes with the compiler. The main difference is that python doesn't have cabal and doesn't have anything like the haskell platform and installing new packages, while easy, is not as automatic as cabal can be.
After about five hours' work (!!!) I *finally* managed to install Criterion yesterday, so I'll send out those tests ASAP.
I wanted to use criterion too at one point, but it looked too hard to install so I was scared away...