It seems that Template Haskell is often viewed by the Haskell community as an unfortunate convenience. It’s hard to put into words exactly what I have observed in this regard, but consider these few examples Template Haskell listed under “The Ugly (but necessary)” in response to the question Which Haskell (GHC) extensions should users use/avoid? … Read more
I want to study FRP in Haskell, but it’s a bit difficult to decide on a library to use. Many seem to be dead attempts, some seem to have been resurrected (such as recent activity on Yampa). From what I read, it seems that there are two “kinds” of FRP: push-pull FRP (like in Reactive-banana … Read more
I came across the following definition as I try to learn Haskell using a real project to drive it. I don’t understand what the exclamation mark in front of each argument means and my books didn’t seem to mention it. data MidiMessage = MidiMessage !Int !MidiMessage 3 Answers 3
The ‘algebraic’ expression for algebraic data types looks very suggestive to someone with a background in mathematics. Let me try to explain what I mean. Having defined the basic types Product • Union + Singleton X Unit 1 and using the shorthand X² for X•X and 2X for X+X et cetera, we can then define … Read more
What does Weak Head Normal Form (WHNF) mean? What does Head Normal form (HNF) and Normal Form (NF) mean? Real World Haskell states: The familiar seq function evaluates an expression to what we call head normal form (abbreviated HNF). It stops once it reaches the outermost constructor (the “head”). This is distinct from normal form (NF), in which an expression is … Read more
Here’s the scenario: I’ve written some code with a type signature and GHC complains could not deduce x ~ y for some x and y. You can usually throw GHC a bone and simply add the isomorphism to the function constraints, but this is a bad idea for several reasons: It does not emphasize understanding … Read more
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for … Read more
I’m beginning to understand how the forall keyword is used in so-called “existential types” like this: data ShowBox = forall s. Show s => SB s This is only a subset, however, of how forall is used and I simply cannot wrap my mind around its use in things like this: runST :: forall a. … Read more
From the docs for GHC 7.6: [Y]ou often don’t even need the SPECIALIZE pragma in the first place. When compiling a module M, GHC’s optimiser (with -O) automatically considers each top-level overloaded function declared in M, and specialises it for the different types at which it is called in M. The optimiser also considers each … Read more
In my humble opinion the answers to the famous question “What is a monad?”, especially the most voted ones, try to explain what is a monad without clearly explaining why monads are really necessary. Can they be explained as the solution to a problem? 8 Answers 8
