[Haskell] IO question

[Frank Seaton Taylor]

On 11 Jun 2004, at 08:50, Keith Wansbrough wrote:

>> On Fri, Jun 11, 2004 at 01:23:11PM +0200, Tom Hofte wrote:
>>> I want to have a function that unpack an IO.
>>> I should have the type: IO a -> a.
>>> Is this possible?
>>
>> There is unsafePerformIO, but before you use it, think - do you
>> really, really want to use it and you really, really know what the
>> consequences can be? Perhaps you could tell us what it is that you 
>> think
>> you need unsafePerformIO for? Maybe it can be done without it?
>
>
> It really should be a list Rule that we don't mention unsafePerformIO
> to newbies.  It should be obvious from the post that unsafePerformIO
> is *not* what the poster wants, so telling them about it will just
> confuse them.  The wiki pointer is much more useful.
>
> (and the ghost of Launchbury whispers in my ear that this is the
> Haskell list, and "unsafePerformIO is not Haskell"!).

John is dead?!?!?!

I guess it's obvious now that someone has implied it. It's seems that 
every time he's seen me of late, he wore an expression of great pain, 
bordering on a rictus. Further, consider that not one of the Galois ( 
http://www.galois.com ) pages has a photo of him and his OGI page ( 
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~jl ) advertises "Warning: This page is out of 
date". Indeed, on the latter page, his visage lacks any sign of 
animation. Furthermore, it is a closely guarded secret that Oregonian 
Oxford Alumni are always interred in their symbolic color, eggplant.

Now couple this with the most recent issue of the Onion ( 
http://www.theonion.com/ ). Notice the second photo in the middle 
column is obviously a young John Launchbury. (This is clearer in the 
small picture, the larger one within the article has been discernibly 
retouched.) The accompanying story is about a young man committing 
suicide. Coincidence?

Or maybe this is all a ploy to boost sales. Those Galois fellows have a 
reputation for being clever. (Hmm... perhaps Wansbrough is a stock 
holder?)

---knarF

P.S. Perhaps on the Haskell wiki we could start a page along the lines 
of:

   http://www.angelfire.com/ct/scrmgdasys/