[Haskell-cafe] What *not* to use Haskell for

[Don Stewart]

tux_rocker:
> 2008/11/11 Dave Tapley <dukedave at gmail.com>:
> > So I should clarify I'm not a troll and do "see the Haskell light". But
> > one thing I can never answer when preaching to others is "what does
> > Haskell not do well?"
> 
> Let's say something controversial: I think that Haskell's type system
> gets in your way when you're writing one-shot scripts that don't need
> to conform to the highest correctness standards. Imagine typing a
> command at the shell prompt and getting the sort of abstract error
> message that Haskell compilers give every now and then, like:
> 
> > whyerror.lhs:36:25:
> >     Ambiguous type variable `a' in the constraint:
> >       `Arrow a' arising from use of `>>>' at whyerror.lhs:36:25-27
> >     Possible cause: the monomorphism restriction applied to the
> > following:
> >       liftA2' :: forall b a1 b1 c. (a1 -> b1 -> c) -> a b a1 -> a b
> > b1 -> a b c
> >         (bound at whyerror.lhs:36:1)
> >       unsplit' :: forall a1 b c. (a1 -> b -> c) -> a (a1, b) c
> >         (bound at whyerror.lhs:34:1)
> >       split' :: forall b. a b (b, b) (bound at whyerror.lhs:33:1)
> >     Probable fix: give these definition(s) an explicit type signature
> >                   or use -fno-monomorphism-restriction
> 
> You don't want to be bothered by such monstrosities (yes, they are,
> even though many of you may not see it because of years of
> conditioning) when you're just hacking up a simple script to make a
> catalog of your MP3 collection / check for patterns in log files /
> whatever.

Why are you using Arrows in your one shot scripts? Do you use Arrows in
your shell scripts?

Seems like a strawman argument..

-- Don