[Haskell-cafe] Wow Monads!

[MarLinn]

On 2017-04-19 15:58, Joachim Durchholz wrote:
> Am 19.04.2017 um 15:13 schrieb Sergiu Ivanov:
>> However, there are a couple big "backdoors", like the IO monad.
>
> Well, it's so awkward that people don't *want* to use it.

That's partly because IO isn't very well defined, and therefore used as 
a catch-all. It's like the "other mail" folder, a stuff-drawer in the 
kitchen or that one room in the basement: random things tend to 
accumulate and rot in there because they don't have a better place.

One of the worst offenders from my perspective is (non-)determinism. 
Randomness can be seen as non-deterministic, but it doesn't need IO. At 
the same time, many things that are in IO are practically not less 
deterministic than pure functions with _|_ – once you have a good enough 
model. In other words, these things could be separated. It needs work, 
to model the real world, to go through all the stuff that's in that 
black box, to convince people to not use IO if they don't need to, to 
change the systems to even allow "alternative IOs"… so it's nothing 
that'll change soon.

But my point is: The type system can only help you if there are precise 
definitions and rules, but IO is the "here be dragons" on our maps of 
the computational world – for one, because the open work I mentioned is 
one of the ways to explore that boundary between theoretical and applied 
computer sciences.
IO is the elephant in the room of type-supported hopes of correctness. 
But then I agree with Joachim: it's also right in the center of the room 
where everyone can see, acknowledge, and avoid it.

Cheers,
MarLinn