[Haskell-cafe] Re: Wikipedia on first-class object

[Jonathan Cast]

On 28 Dec 2007, at 8:42 AM, Cristian Baboi wrote:

> On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:34:23 +0200, apfelmus  
> <apfelmus at quantentunnel.de> wrote:
>
>> Jules Bean wrote:
>>> Cristian Baboi wrote:
>>>> But I guess it won't work because the compiler will optimize it
>>>> and the call will disappear.
>>>
>>> I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say here.
>
>> (That's the "world view on Haskell" issue I mean. I know this  
>> feeling with physics: "what the heck are they talking about, this  
>> is just mathematically wrong, ill-defined or otherwise void of  
>> contents?")
>
>
> Let me ask you 3 simple questions.
> Can one use Haskell to make dynamically linked libraries (DLL on  
> Windows, so on Linux) ?

Haskell 98, no.  But GHC works fine.

> If yes, what is in them ?

As has been said, object code.  Which is why you can't call GHC  
outside of the IO monad.

> If not, why not ?

Because it's not portable.

These days, it is distressingly common to see the word `portable'  
used to mean `works on anything sufficiently willing to pretend it's  
a Unix'.  This depresses me; I think it's a failure of imagination,  
mostly.

jcc