Pattern matching goes back to Burstall and Darlington's work in the 1970's.
As for "x:xs", the "xs" is meant to be the plural of "x", and is
pronounced "exs" (I guess...).
Similarly, "n:ns" is one n followed by many more "ens". Make sense?
(By the way, ":" is often pronounced "followed by".)
-Paul Hudak
Toby Hutton wrote:
Hi,
This may have been asked before, sorry if so. I've wondered where the
convention of pattern matching a list to (x:xs) came from? I've read
a couple of old papers recently which let me believe it may have
started back in the '70s with Miranda and its ilk.
Does anyone know why (x:xs)? Is xs meant to be a synonym for 'excess'?
Yours curiously,
Toby.
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