[Haskell-cafe] Re: do

[Jules Bean]

Ben Franksen wrote:
> I don't buy this. As has been noted by others before, IO is a very special
> case, in that it can't be defined in Haskell itself, and there is no
> evaluation function runIO :: IO a -> a.

This is a straw man. Most monads will not have such a function:

There is no function (State s a) -> a.

There is no function (r -> a) -> a.

There is no function (Random a) -> a. [assuming some random monad, often 
discussed]

There is no function (Supply s a) -> a. [Another useful monad although 
not one of the standard ones]

There are no (total) functions Maybe a -> a, [a] -> a, Either e a -> a.



As to the topic of the thread: I agree IO is an unusual monad. I'm not 
sure if I agree that it shouldn't be used as a teaching basis. I think 
there are all kinds of ways to teach haskell; I'd be inclined to want to 
start with some IO, without explaining the plumbing in detail, and then 
come back to it later with better perspective when discussing general 
monads.

Jules