Top level mutable data structures problem

[David Brown]

On Wed, Oct 20, 2004 at 03:46:47PM +0100, Simon Marlow wrote:

> I liked the original idea.  I'm not sure if I agree with the argument
> that allowing fully-fledged IO actions in the initialisation of a module
> is unsafe.  I agree that it is a little opaque, in the sense that one
> can't easily tell whether a particular init action is going to run or
> not.  

Allowing IO actions in the initialization of a module then requires the
ability to determine what order these initializations happen in.  Ocaml
does this, and it requires that all modules be specified in a proper order
to the compiler.

Dave