Hello, World!

-- Unsafe.hs

import Data.IORef (IORef, newIORef, readIORef, writeIORef)
import System.IO.Unsafe (unsafePerformIO)

var :: a -> IORef a
var = unsafePerformIO . newIORef

(<==) :: IORef a -> a -> ()
r <== a = unsafePerformIO $ writeIORef r a

star :: IORef a -> a
star = unsafePerformIO . readIORef

Haskell, a purely functional programming language, supports global mutable variables. Load the above script with ghci to see how it works.

*Main> let helloWorld = var "Hello, World!"
*Main> star helloWorld
"Hello, World!"
*Main> helloWorld <== "Surprise!"
()
*Main> star helloWorld
"Surprise!"

Notice, in line 1, let is used instead of <-. That's because var is not a monadic action. unsafePerformIO has removed the IO context and made it a "pure" function. unsafePerformIO is also used to achieve false purity in the definitions of the assignment operator <== and the dereference function star. These impurely pure functions can be buried anywhere in a codebase, turning the application into a game of minesweeper.

The unsafePerformIO documentation provides one of the more humorous lines technical writing has to offer:

This is the "back door" into the IO monad