Re: Proposal: making inits and tails less strict

On 18 March 2011 06:25, Bas van Dijk wrote:

I would like to propose making inits and tails less strict:

 inits                   :: [a] -> [[a]] -inits []                =  [[]] -inits (x:xs)            =  [[]] ++ map (x:) (inits xs) +inits xs                =  [] : case xs of +                                  []   -> [] +                                  x:xs -> map (x:) (inits xs)

 tails                   :: [a] -> [[a]] -tails []                =  [[]] -tails xxs@(_:xs)        =  xxs : tails xs +tails xxs               =  xxs : case xxs of +                                   []   -> [] +                                   _:xs -> tails xs

Having a lazier inits allows the elegant: nats = map length (inits nats) which loops for the current definition. This definition was due to John Tromp: http://www.mail-archive.com/haskell@haskell.org/msg21044.html

I'm not against this proposal, but am just curious: is there any reason/need for this lazier definition apart from an elegant (but possibly not actually needed/useful) trick? -- Ivan Lazar Miljenovic Ivan.Miljenovic@gmail.com IvanMiljenovic.wordpress.com