[Haskell-cafe] Re: OCaml list sees abysmal Language Shootout results

[Ronny Wichers Schreur]

Jerzy Karczmarczuk writes (in the Haskell cafe):

> OK, I admit that I will never understand these complaints about the
> inefficiency of non-strict computations, since what I *require* in most
> of my work is laziness. Had I needed strictness for the sake of efficiency,
> I would use a different language instead of throwing dirt at Haskell.

Sometimes lazy is better, sometimes eager. That's why I want to use
both strategies in one language and program.

I think complaints about ineffeciency of non-strict computations can
be valid. It's nice to write

     sum = foldl (+) 0
     main = print ( sum [1..100000])

but if your program runs out of stack you don't want to switch to
another language.

> Clean has not only those ubiquitous !annotations, but has a powerful
> strickness analyzer, which alleviates their use.

Strictness analysis is undecidable in general and there are situations
(in real programs) where Clean's strictness analysis falls short.


Cheers,

Ronny Wichers Schreur