[Haskell-cafe] deepSeq vs rnf

[Malcolm Wallace]

Ross Paterson <ross at soi.city.ac.uk> wrote:

> > > Perhaps it would make sense to move all the NFData material to a
> > > new module called, say, Control.NormalForm,
> > 
> > Agreed.  [ Bikeshed time:  Control.Evaluation.Strategies anyone? ]
> 
> The suggestion is a module containing just class NFData, instances for
> Prelude types, and perhaps
> 
> 	deepSeq :: NFData a => a -> b -> b
> 	deepSeq x y = rnf x `seq` y
> 
> Shouldn't it have something like NF in the name?

Well, "NormalForm" perhaps, cryptic abbreviations like NF, no.  But that
aside, I hadn't realised you were proposing to move so little.  Would it
not be useful to have a lot more of the evaluation strategy stuff widely
available, even to sequential programs?

Regards,
    Malcolm