In fairness to John, his trying really hard to avoid causing offense might 
having something to do with the fact that he just had a couple dozen or so 
e-mails attacking him personally the last time he tried asking questions about 
Haskell and comparing it to O'Caml.

I have to confess that I myself had thought at the time that he was being a 
troll --- i.e., in this case a person who shows up on a mailing list of fans of 
a language and attacks it just to create a fuss --- since he had not only 
pointed out reasons why the language is flawed (which is not in itself 
unreasonable, as long as it is being done in a constructive manner), but asked 
us to prove that it *wasn't* flawed, and said things that implied that we only 
liked it because we had never seriously looked at any other language.  However, 
his recent e-mails on this have shown a serious willingness to really try to 
understand more about Haskell.  Thus, perhaps there may have simply been a 
miscommunication/misunderstanding earlier.

Cheers,
Greg


On Dec 10, 2009, at 8:47 AM, Sebastian Sylvan wrote:

> 
> 
> On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 4:15 PM, John D. Earle <[email protected]> wrote:
> To elaborate there is another language that is also a functional language. I 
> won't mention the name so as not to offend anyone. It too is effect free, 
> that is what makes it functional and it is a functional language in the true 
> sense of the term, but it is not effect free in the sense that Haskell is 
> effect free. This other language is effect free in every practical sense 
> whereas Haskell is effect free in a strict sense.
> 
> Why would anyone be offended? I'd prefer if you tried to be clear about what 
> you mean, rather than intentionally obscure your points to avoid causing 
> offence. Be specific. What language? How is it different than Haskell w.r.t. 
> purity? 
> 
> -- 
> Sebastian Sylvan
> _______________________________________________
> Haskell-Cafe mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

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