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What does "s" mean in the name of the :sprint GHCi command? This is the description from the official documentation, to give you some context:

sprint : Prints a value without forcing its evaluation. :sprint is similar to :print, with the difference that unevaluated subterms are not bound to new variables, they are simply denoted by ‘_’.

duplode
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Nicolas Henin
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2 Answers2

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As you have seen, the description of :sprint in the GHC User's Guide says nothing on the matter. According to the :sprint entry in Julie Moronuki and Chris Martin's typeclasses.com...

The s stands for “simple,” the idea being that :sprint is in some sense a simplified version of the :print command, since :sprint does less work.

could it be 's' for strictness ?

Presumably not, as much of the point of :sprint and :print is that they are, in a sense, lazier than the print function.

duplode
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1

  1. type ghci

  2. type :?

  3. You will get: Commands available from the prompt:

  4. Look for the sprintf: documentation

    :sprint [<name> ...] simplified version of :print

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Sagi
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