[Haskell-cafe] Full strict functor by abusing Haskell exceptions

[Neil Brown]

On 13/09/10 17:25, Maciej Piechotka wrote:
>> import Control.Exception
>> import Foreign
>> import Prelude hiding (catch)
>>
>> data StrictMonad a = StrictMonad a deriving Show
>>
>> instance Monad StrictMonad where
>>      return x = unsafePerformIO $ do
>>          (return $! x) `catch` \(SomeException _) ->  return x
>>          return $! StrictMonad x
>>      StrictMonad v>>= f = f v
>>      
> It seems to be valid IMHO Functor and Monad (I haven't prove it) as long
> as functions terminates.
>    

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to use unsafePerformIO in my 
counter-example, but you used it so why not ;-)
The first monad law says: "return a >>= k = k a"

let k = const (StrictMonad ())
     a = unsafePerformIO launchMissiles

In "k a" no missiles will be launched, in "return a >>= k", they will be 
launched.  You can construct a similar example against "m >>= return = 
m".  Although, if you changed your definition of bind to:

StrictMonad v >>= f = return v >>= f >>= return

Then as long as "return x >>= return = return x" (which it does for you) 
then you automatically satisfy the first two monad laws!  Which is an 
interesting way of solving the problem -- haven't checked the third law 
though.

Thanks,

Neil.