[Haskell-cafe] A Question about IO monad

[Marcin Mrotek]

But this is exactly the point: there can be no total, generic function of type

f :: Monad m => m a -> a

(though there is for a Comonad ;))

As for Zongzhe Yuan's original question, i thinks it's safe to think
of a value of type (IO a) as a program that, when executed, will
result in a value of type a. This program can be copied, stored in a
variable, passed to another thread, etc. It will only be actually
executed when (perhaps after being combined with other IO programs)
bound to the main program.

Kind regards,
Macin Mrotek