I'm trying to understand how short circuiting works with the Maybe monad.
Take the expression n >>= f >>= g >>= h, which can be written as
(((n >>= f) >>= g) >>= h) because >>= is left associative. If n is
Nothing, this implies that (n >>= f) is Nothing, and so on, each nested
sub-expression easily evaluating to Nothing, but without there being a
quick way to short circuit at the beginning.
Now take the example
do x <- xs
y <- ys
z <- zs
return (x, y, z)
which I believe desugars like
xs >>= (\x -> ys >>= (\y -> zs >>= (\z -> return (x, y, z))))
Here the associativity of >>= no longer matters, and if xs is Nothing the
whole expression can quickly be determined to be Nothing, because Nothing
>>= _ = Nothing. Am I looking at this correctly?
- John
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