[Haskell-beginners] [Haskell-cafe] select :: [(Float, a)] -> a -- Weighted stochastic selection - help?

[Daniel Fischer]

Am Freitag, 5. September 2008 21:51 schrieb C.M.Brown:
> It's certainly possibly to define or use State in a way  that it gives
> the impression of modifying a global state, it therefore having a
> side-effect.
>
> Chris.

Can you give an example? I don't see how that can be done using 
Control.Monad.State(.Strict).State, unless invocations of put or modify are 
considered side effects. 

Thanks,
Daniel