Re: Haskell and Parallelism (was: What is a functional language?)

[S. Alexander Jacobson]

On Tue, 28 Sep 1999, Martin Norb{ck wrote:
> Oh, but _|_ is a member of the type Boolean. 
> _|_ is a member of all types.
> 
> For instance, I can write the following:

Someone else said this as well.  
Every login textbook I have seen says that to be a boolean is to be either
True or False, not True, False, or I_dunno.
Don't mistake features of the simulation for features of reality.
As an implementation matter, Haskell allows you to pass _|_ to a function
that takes only boolean arguments.  That does not mean _|_ is a boolean.  
It does mean that Haskell's model for booleans is less than perfect.
I think Adrian's complaints revolve around this distinctinction.

-Alex-

PS Martin, if your comments come with an implied smirk, then I apologize
for my lack of sense of humor

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