[Haskell-cafe] Re: A question about functional dependencies and existential

[Alex Queiroz]

Hallo,

On 3/29/07, Nicolas Frisby <nicolas.frisby at gmail.com> wrote:
> A wee bit off topic... but bear with me.
>

More off-topic... but bear with me. :-)

I'm starting with Haskell. I'm writing a real application with Gtk2hs
and HDBC for a small furniture shop. I have enjoyed it very much so
far, and I like the productivity boost. But I do not understand GADTs
or functional dependencies yet.

When I read threads such as this I begin to think. Are these black
magic type skills necessary for day-to-day work, or just for tasks not
doable in other languages, or at least not doable without much effort?
Are they for working around some problems of HM type systems or do
they give Haskell super-language powers? I guess I could answer these
questions if I understood what FD and GATDs are all about, but I'm not
just there yet. :-)

Cheers,
-- 
-alex