Zooko Journeyman, you wrote:
>
> Anyway... All this came out because I saw someone saying "We
> need to add all these features in order to make Haskell useful
> for serious programming!". That may well be true, depending on
> what the features actually are, but it strikes me as ironic
> since I came here in search of "fewer features, for serious
> programming". :-)
I understand your perspective, but I must strongly agree with
Ralf Hinze about the necessity of the first few features he
mentioned: support for multiparameter type classes, explicit
type quantifiers, and mutable arrays and mutable variables.
Without these features, I think the language will indeed
"get in the way".
Multiparameter type classes and explicit type quantifiers are important
because Haskell doesn't have any way to "escape" from the type system,
so it is necessary that the type system be very expressive.
Mutable arrays and mutable variables are necessary because there
are many algorithms that cannot be efficiently expressed without them.
--
Fergus Henderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh> | of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] | -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
