[Haskell-cafe] Re: implementing recursive let

[Ben Franksen]

Derek Elkins wrote:
> The following code works fine for me, so it seems you are missing some
> details that may help.
> [...snip code...]

Thank you! Indeed I did simplify the code when writing the message --
because I thought that those other bits could not possibly be at
fault... ;-)

*trying out many changes to my own code and yours*

Ok, I finally found it. What actually made the difference was the case for
variables:

Your version is

> eval (Var x)   = gets (fromJust . M.lookup x)

which is suitably lazy, whereas mine was (more or less)

> eval e@(Var name) = do
>   env <- ask
>   case M.lookup name env of
>     Nothing  -> do
>       -- undefined variable reference
>       warning ("reference to undefined variable " ++ show name)
>       let val = Data ""
>       modify (M.insert name val)
>       return val
>     Just val -> return val

Note that whatever I do in the 'Nothing' case is irrelevant, your code with
the Var case replaced by

> eval e@(Var name) = do
>   env <- ask
>   case M.lookup name env of
>     Just val -> return val

loops as well.

My problem is that I still don't understand why this is so! I know of course
that pattern matching is strict, but I thought this should be ok here,
since I evaluate the declarations _before_ the body, so when evaluation of
the body demands the variable, it will be defined.

What am I missing?

Cheers
Ben