[Haskell-cafe] Re: [Haskell] IVars

[Bertram Felgenhauer]

[redirecting to haskell-cafe]

Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:
> But since the read may block, it matters *when* you perform it.  For
> example if you print "Hello" and then read the IVar, you'll block
> after printing; but if you read the IVar and then print, the print
> won't come out.  If the operation was pure (no IO) then you'd have
> a lot less control over when it happened.

Well, the same can happen with any pure computation that does not
terminate. It's the compiler's job to avoid that, and as far as I know
ghc is pretty careful not to reorder pure computations and IO
operations too much.

I'd argue for adding both an IO and a pure version of readIVar to an
IVar implementation. Both have their uses; the firts gives you a little
extra control, while the second one can easily be evaluated on demand,
at the risk of creating a mine field of potential deadlocks.

Bertram