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Comment by teaspoon | Hacker News Reader

Non-exhaustive patterns are one thing the compiler can't catch:

  fn 0 = return ()
  main = fn 1

Giving an empty list to head/tail is another:

  main = head []

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Speaking of the first example, compiling it with -Wall provides some hints:

  $ ghc --make test.hs -Wall
  test.hs:1:1:
      Warning: Pattern match(es) are non-exhaustive
               In an equation for `fn':
                   Patterns not matched: #x with #x `notElem` [0#]

Wow, that's cool. It even works for non-Bounded argument types, as in fn [0] = 0:

  Warning: Pattern match(es) are non-exhaustive
        In an equation for `fn':
            Patterns not matched:
                []
                #x : _ with #x `notElem` [0#]
                0# : (_ : _)

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