unsafePerformIO and FFI library initialization

Question

I\'m creating an FFI module to a library in C which wants a 1-time, non-reentrant function to be called before anything else is. This call is idempotent, but stateful, so I coul

Answer 1

I'd like to note that currently some new trick is suggested for/instead of withSocketsDo by Neil Mitchell, based on evaluate ("Forces its argument to be evaluated to weak head normal form when the resultant IO action is executed."):

withSocketsDo act = do evaluate withSocketsInit; act 

{-# NOINLINE withSocketsInit #-}
withSocketsInit = unsafePerformIO $ do
    initWinsock
    termWinsock

My approach to removing the requirement to call withSocketsDo was to make it very cheap, then sprinkle it everywhere it might be needed.

Not necessarily this is a beautiful idea...

(See also his answer announcing this update in the library.)