IO and syntax

[Jyrinx]

I just got back from a high-school programming competition where the
only allowed languages were C[++] and Java (*grmbl*). To see just how
cool Haskell is, I'm redoing some of the problems in this more
enlightened language :-)

Anyway, that explains the rather strict requirements for my program's
interface. At one point, the user must enter pairs of numbers like so:

1 4
2 4
3 2
4 1
4 3
0 0

(where two zeros terminate the input). Here is my latest attempt at a
function to do this part of the problem (and it's the easy part ...)

--- snip ---

-- type Player = Int

readIncompatList :: IO [(Player, Player)]
readIncompatList =
    readIL' []
    where readIL' ans =
            do  a <- readDec
                b <- readDec
                if a == 0 && b == 0 then ans else readIL' ((a, b):ans)

--- snip ---

GHC complains with the following:

--- snip ---

prob13.hs:37:
    Couldn't match `String -> t' against `[t1]'
	Expected type: String -> t
	Inferred type: [t1]
    Probable cause: `(:)' is applied to too many arguments in the call
	((:) (a, b) ans)
    In the first argument of `readIL'', namely `((a, b) : ans)'

--- snip ---

Of course, this "probable cause" is ridiculous at face value ... anyway,
my code makes as much sense to me as it can at the moment ... how should
I get it to make sense to GHC? (I couldn't find any examples on
something as mundane as console I/O; funny how people are so fixated on
the real stuff :-) )

Thanks!

Jyrinx
jyrinx_list@mindspring.com