On 10/7/10 8:35 AM, Ketil Malde wrote:
Christian Sternagel<c.sterna...@gmail.com> writes:
recently I was wondering about the two words "order" and "ordering"
I would use "ordering" to mean the relation or function that orders
(ranks) elements, and I'd use "order" to refer the actual progression.
So by applying an ordering, you get elements in a particular order.
+1.
Though, as others've said, they're basically synonymous (functions are
data, and data are functions :)
One caveat is: consider the case where be pick a bunch of numbers at
random, one at a time. The "order" of the numbers would be a relation on
which number we picked before another; whereas the "ordering" of the
numbers would still be the underlying order(ing) of the domain we're
picking numbers from. E.g., if I pick [5,3,7,9] then 5 < 3 according to
the order (in which the numbers were picked) but 3 < 5 according to the
ordering (on the natural numbers).
The other big caveat is that we can talk about "the order" of certain
things (first-order logic, higher-order functions,...) and that has
nothing to do with an ordering (of logic, functions,...). Or at least,
nothing directly related to an ordering.
--
Live well,
~wren
_______________________________________________
Haskell-Cafe mailing list
Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org
http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
