[Haskell-cafe] How to move files?

[Donn Cave]

quoth YueCompl <compl.yue at icloud.com>
> > Catch that error, and copy-and-delete.
> 
> I suggest this is typical EAFP (Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission) coding style from Zen of Python
> http://docs.python.org//glossary.html#term-eafp <http://docs.python.org//glossary.html#term-eafp>
> 
> I'm very curious to know how Haskellers think and do about it?
> 
> Is there something close to Zen of Haskell?

For another example, I quote from my man page for access(2), which can
be used to determine if the caller has the necessary privilege etc. -

" The result of access() should not be used to make an actual access control
  decision, since its response, even if correct at the moment it is formed,
  may be outdated at the time you act on it.  access() results should only
  be used to pre-flight, such as when configuring user interface elements or
  for optimization purposes.  The actual access control decision should be
  made by attempting to execute the relevant system call while holding the
  applicable credentials, and properly handling any resulting errors; and
  this must be done even though access() may have predicted success."

That particular consideration doesn't apply so much to this case, that
I can see anyway, but as a model for how to deal with situations like
this it seems sound to me, as long as the operation can be trusted
to either work or fail inexpensively and without side effects.  You
make the intended functionality the main program path;  you handle
failures as you see fit.

However, I have to say, it appears to be less of a Haskell option than
in most computer programming languages I'm familiar with.

main = catchIOError
   (rename oldFile newFile)
   (\ e -> print (ioeGetErrorType e))

... all I get out of that is "unsupported operation".  I see no way to
get to the POSIX error value, EXDEV, which isn't one of the few common
errors that has a documented Haskell test.  In OCaml for example, the
well known errors are all enumerated (including EXDEV), but if you need
to handle one that isn't, there's EUNKNOWNERR with a value.  A casual
look at the documentation suggests that while I can catch this error,
Haskell doesn't give me the means to identify it.

To make the most of my appearance here on haskell-cafe ... I find the
notion of a "Zen" of this or that language kind of awkward.  I suppose
it's one of those usages that has taken on its own diluted popular
meaning that has few traces of the original (goes back to "Zen in
the Art of Archery"?  I don't know.)  But as little as the term may
intend to refer the actual religious practice, that religious practice
is a real thing with many adherents, a complicated doctrine with various
schools, a lot of priests - and one where I find it very hard to
recognize the appication to computer programming.

	Donn