> main =
> do let mylist = [1..10000]
> writeFile "myfile.txt" (unlines (map show mylist))
This part does run in O(1) space and isn't problematic.
> -- ...
> mylist' <- (map read . lines) `fmap` readFile "myfile.txt"
> let result = sum mylist'
> print result
Indeed, this works by interleaving the I/O and the computation of the
result. It is a convenient way to program, because you can use ordinary
list operations on the I/O stream. We know it is not "safe": a
programmer can observe the fact that implicit I/O is going on.
It is also not a good way to program: you have no way to catch errors
and take appropriate action if the implicit I/O should fail in some way.
Should we really be encouraging the writing of programs that have no
error checking?
> With lazy IO, this program too should run in constant space, and the
> functions that consume the large intermediate structure can remain
> unchanged!
>
> So, I think a lazy programming language should support not only lazy
> evaluation, but also lazy IO! When it is appropriate to abstract away
> from the details of when IO happens, lazy IO is useful. It can
> facilitate separation of concerns and modularity, just like lazy
> evaluation. Appropriate lazy IO should not compromise the
> purity of the language or be an obstacle to optimistic evaluation.
I look forward to seeing a form of lazy I/O that doesn't suffer from
these problems! (although I suspect I still won't use it :-p)
Cheers,
Simon
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