OK, here are the suggestions so far:

type Maybe a = ...

Nothing | Just a
Nothing | Something a
None | Some a
NoValue | Some a
Nothing | Some a
Nothing | The a
Nothing | A a
Nothing | Thing a
NoThing | Thing a
Nothing | Have a
Nothing | Got a
Null | NotNull a
No | Yes a
Empty | Full a

(I just added that last one.)


On Tue, Nov 22, 2016 at 12:46 PM, David Andrews <[email protected]> wrote:

> I don't think it really works for this, but the natural definition for
> Maybe would seem to be
>
> Maybe a = Yes a | No
>
> On Nov 22, 2016 11:30 AM, "Will White" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I see.
>>
>> We’re happy using the ungrammatical Ok a for Results, so why not Thing a
>> for Maybes?
>>
>> On 22 Nov 2016, at 13:06, 'Andrew Radford' via Elm Discuss <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> I think his point was if it was a Maybe List Int, then you would have
>>
>> 'A items'
>>
>> It still seems English is not up to this task :) We should probably just
>> make up a new word, start using it day to day, then have it included in the
>> OED. If it can be done for 'selfie
>> <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/selfie>', then we could do
>> it for <insert candidate here>
>>
>> On Tuesday, 22 November 2016 10:35:48 UTC, Will White wrote:
>>>
>>> type Maybe thing = A thing | Nothing
>>>
>>> So with List.head list I’d get A 2 or Nothing.
>>>
>>> On 22 Nov 2016, at 10:20, Oliver Searle-Barnes <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> The problem with Some is that it should be A/An/Some depending on the
>>> subject. I'm starting to come round to Thing vs Nothing. While the grammer
>>> isn't spot on the semantics are very clear.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tuesday, 22 November 2016 11:06:10 UTC+1, Will White wrote:
>>>>
>>>> weapon = Just sword doesn’t make sense for Maybe. It implies “just
>>>> sword, out of all the weapons”. Just *would*make sense in a Just
>>>> weapon | All (List weapon) type, where weapon could also be All [ sword,
>>>> mace, nunchuk ].
>>>>
>>>> I think we all agree that Nothing totally nails its concept (better
>>>> than null for the uninitiated). I'm just looking for a word that implies
>>>> its alternative is Nothing, e.g. Thing, Something. If it’s grammatically
>>>> correct, that’s a bonus, but I think eliminating things which hinder
>>>> understanding is more important.
>>>>
>>>> On 22 Nov 2016, at 00:24, joseph ni <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I came to Elm not knowing about the Maybe type.
>>>> The hardest thing for me to grasp was the use case and being able to
>>>> map : (a -> b) -> Maybe a -> Maybe b. And knowing when to use a Maybe
>>>> (rarely) vs when to use a union type or refactor the code so it doesn't
>>>> need the Maybe type.
>>>>
>>>> If I was to qualitatively estimate the amount of time spent learning
>>>> about Maybe. I'd say it took me a moment to understand `Maybe a = Just a |
>>>> Nothing` and a couple of months to get comfortable enough with the Maybe
>>>> type now to understand where it's needed in my app.
>>>>
>>>> So I'd tend to lean with Joey, the wording works for me and changing it
>>>> would feel arbitrary and break the current grammatical 'symmetry' as in
>>>> weapon = Just sword
>>>> vs
>>>> weapon = Something sword
>>>>
>>>> On Tuesday, 22 November 2016 08:19:21 UTC+11, Oliver Searle-Barnes
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I have to admit I did find `Just` very confusing when I first
>>>>> encountered it, as mentioned earlier in this thread it implies some kind 
>>>>> of
>>>>> limitation which doesn't match the semantics of Maybe at all. That said, 
>>>>> it
>>>>> was one of those little oddities that very quickly become second nature,
>>>>> just wanted to point out that it is a slight bump in the road for 
>>>>> newcomers.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Monday, 21 November 2016 18:34:05 UTC+1, Noah Hall wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Has anyone actually encountered anyone being confused by the names? I
>>>>>>
>>>>>> haven't. I think this a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 6:15 PM, Will White <[email protected]>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> > I think that’s because you already know what Just means. I don’t
>>>>>> think it’s
>>>>>> > arbitrary though from an accessibility point of view. Some or None
>>>>>> is easier
>>>>>> > for newcomers to understand than Just or Nothing, especially as
>>>>>> Some isn’t
>>>>>> > misleading the way Just is, as Andrew described well.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > On 21 Nov 2016, at 17:05, Joey Eremondi <[email protected]>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Honestly, these choices seem pretty arbitrary. Everyone has a
>>>>>> preference. ML
>>>>>> > uses Some/None, Haskell uses Just/Nothing. Some people find
>>>>>> Something
>>>>>> > intuitive, some don't.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Given that the choices is (mostly) arbitrary, it seems best to
>>>>>> stick with
>>>>>> > the status quo.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > On Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 7:47 AM, 'Andrew Radford' via Elm Discuss
>>>>>> > <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> Probably inherited from Haskell, like a lot of other stuff. Doubt
>>>>>> if there
>>>>>> >> was any other thought put into it if I'm honest.
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> On Monday, 21 November 2016 14:46:40 UTC, Will White wrote:
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> Sorry, meant to say “I guess he’s already considered and rejected
>>>>>> them”.
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> On 21 Nov 2016, at 14:21, Will White <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> I prefer Some or None, for understanding. Though, unless Evan
>>>>>> didn’t know
>>>>>> >>> about them, I guess we’d already have them.
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> On 20 Nov 2016, at 23:41, Robin Heggelund Hansen <
>>>>>> [email protected]>
>>>>>> >>> wrote:
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> How about 'Some' and 'None'?
>>>>>> >>> Those are not longer to type than what we have today, and they
>>>>>> should
>>>>>> >>> solve your initial confusion.
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> søndag 20. november 2016 18.16.26 UTC+1 skrev Will White følgende:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>> >>>> I'm talking about Maybe.Just, of course. Just has always seemed
>>>>>> strange
>>>>>> >>>> to me, as if it's hinting that it's something other than just the
>>>>>>
>>>>>> >>>> counterpart to Nothing. I don't know the reasons behind its
>>>>>> naming, but I
>>>>>> >>>> think I would prefer Something, as in "something or nothing".
>>>>>> What do you
>>>>>> >>>> think?
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>>
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