The main problem with laziness is that, according to SPJ "[l]aziness makes it much, much harder to reason about performance, especially space."
Of course, lazy-by-default also brings many advantages: http://augustss.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/more-points-for-lazy-...
Re:Idris 1.0
by solidsnack9000 on Saturday April 01, 2017 @09:01PM
(#14015097)
It's not so much a PR failure, as an ergonomics issue -- making laziness the default makes it too easy for people to create performance problems for themselves.
Haskell's laziness undoubtedly works and is useful; you might say it was Haskell's strictness that needed improving.
Although I understand why Idris is strict by default, there is a part of me that dies a little from that understanding :(