[Haskell-cafe] GHC predictability

[Andrew Coppin]

Darrin Thompson wrote:
> These "tricks" going into Real World Haskell?

Seconded.

> When you say someone
> needs to get familiar with the "STG paper" it scares me (a beginner)
> off a little, an I've been making an effort to approach the papers.

Well, I'm the sort of contrary person who reads random papers like that 
just for the fun of it. But when somebody says something like this, I 
don't think "ooo, that's scary", I think "ooo, somebody really ought to 
sit down and write a more gentle introduction". You really shouldn't 
*need* to know the exact implementation details to get some idea of what 
will perform well and what won't. But obviously you do need some kind of 
high-level understanding of what's going on. The STG paper isn't a good 
way to get that high-level overview.