Laurent Deniau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: [...]
| About the libraries, I should say that I was a bit disappointed by the | common use of the terms genericity and polymorphism (even in | books). For example I have read many times that "length" is | polymorphic or generic while it only computes the length of a list. I suspect that reflects a common view, that the list datatype is The materialization of the notion of sequence -- anything else is either obscure or marginal or perversion :-/ | It probably reflects that standard libraries do not provide enough | *generic* API through the use of classes and overloading. If you look | at Java evolution (not my favorite language), a lot of classes have | been converted into interfaces to improve its flexibility and its | evolution. In Haskell, most functions should be member of a generic | API through classes and overloaded for common types like list (the | paper 'Software Extension and Integration with Type Classes' may help | here). I agree with what you say. However, the trouble with is that a descent job at categorizing and implementing containers with type classes will require, at the minimum, multi-parameter type classes functional dependencies, associated types or equivalents. Those topics seem to be subject of heated debates among seasoned Haskellers. Personally, I'm looking forward to a standardization of multit-parameter type classes with functional dependency -- at least a blessing of the parts that "work". Simon PJ has an excellent paper on "bulk types with class" that you might want to consult for some thorny issues. [...] | Finally, the rules associated with monads are just there to | allow common usage, that is the composition of monad (e.g. in do | notation) and the encapsulation of the 'thing' when entering the | monad. And change the name "monad" to something less scary for common programmers too? :-) -- Gaby _______________________________________________ Haskell-prime mailing list Haskell-prime@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-prime
