The Haskell language has two very distinguishing features: Laziness and parametric polymorphism. At a glance, these two features may not seem to have that much in common. However, laziness can be seen as a form of implicit polymorphism (and it tends to be implemented as such). Consider the function with the following type signature:
f :: Integer -> Integer
One could say this function is polymorphic in the first argument: The argument can either be an actual Integer or it can be something that evaluates to an Integer. When we look at laziness as a form of polymorphism, it becomes clear that eliminating polymorphism will also eliminate laziness.
This is largely irrelevant for the average Jane Doe hacker. But if you're working on optimizations aimed at improving the time or space characteristics by eliminating "unwanted" polymorphism, it becomes important to keep laziness in mind. The hint here is for adaptive containers.
Well, to make a short story even shorter: Laziness and polymorphism are different sides of the same coin. If you optimize away polymorphism, you will (perhaps inadvertently) also squash laziness.
All this is obvious in retrospect but I didn't get it until it was right in front of me.
Unless something's up (insert puerile snicker here), I think you meant to say "At a glance"
ReplyDeleteOh dear, you're right. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDelete