[Haskell-beginners] Re: [Haskell-begin] Maximum of a List?

[Niels Aan de Brugh]

Steve Klabnik wrote:
> I think you're onto something with the Int/Integer thing....when using 
> a type signature of "Integer", "f  1 113383" gives "248" immediately. 
> Compiling and running the code with "Integer" types on my home machine 
> yields "525".... which Euler says isn't the right answer?
Because you're not providing the right number. :-)
> Also, on the strictness annotations: Do you put them in the type 
> declaration? Or in the pattern match on the lhs of the declaration?
I've tested your code with strictness annotations and it appears to not 
make a difference. GHC employs several optimization techniques, one of 
those being strictness analysis, so maybe it is already using a strict, 
unboxed integer.

The real speed-up (a non-linear one) here is not to re-calculate every 
sequence over and over again, but keep it in a map/array (as suggested 
by Rafael and me). I've found some Euler puzzles are impossible to solve 
without this technique.

Niels

P.S.: If you're really going for speed, compile (not interpret) the code 
(using -O -fvia-C, and there's some more stuff in the manual) using the 
latest greatest version of GHC.