Influence of KRC and SASL on Haskell?

Question

While learning Haskell I took a side road (so to speak) in researching the Kent Recursive Calculator and SASL functional languages. I was immediately struck by the similarities between them and Haskell and since they predate it I wonder if/how they provided influence.

Any information regarding the influence (or lack thereof) of KRC and SASL on Haskell would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

The connection you're probably looking for here is that David Turner, who was largely responsible for SASL and KRC, was also involved with Miranda, a non-strict, purely functional language. Miranda was relatively popular in its time, but was a proprietary language; an open standard alternative to Miranda was a major motivation for the creation of Haskell.

For further details, see also A History Of Haskell: Being Lazy With Class, by Hudak, Hughes, SPJ, and Wadler, which mentions Turner's work as well as other influences on Haskell.