[Haskell-cafe] [Haskell Cafe] strict version of Haskell - does it exist?

[Doug McIlroy]

> Is there any document describing why there is no ghc --strict flag
> making all code strict by default?
> Wouldn't such a '--strict' flag turn Haskell/GHC into a better C/gcc
> compiler?

I agree that a strict flag would turn Haskell into C--but that's a
perversion of Haskell.  Almost all Haskell code I write depends critically
on laziness.  Sure, there are little bits here and there that would run
faster if I carefully decorated them with strict flags.  But the
genius of Haskell is architectural clarity, achieved in no small
part by relegating nasty issues of sequencing to the implementation.

If you even have to think once about what needs to be strict or 
non-strict, then non-strict is the only viable default.  I can't
imagine writing any interesting Haskell code that will successfully 
run all strict.

Doug McIlroy