[Haskell-cafe] Re: Comments from OCaml Hacker Brian Hurt
jwlato at gmail.com
Fri Jan 16 12:58:27 EST 2009
> On Fri, 16 Jan 2009, Duncan Coutts wrote:
>> If you or anyone else has further concrete suggestions / improvements
>> then post them here now! :-)
Show various examples of how monoids apply to programming
concepts/problems, e.g. monoids to combine configuration
parameters/flags, monoids in writers, etc. Show how using the
abstract monoid class is an advantage over a less abstract class/type
with concrete examples.
> Jonathan Cast wrote:
> To accumulate a running count, maybe? A fairly common pattern for
counting in imperative languages is
> int i = 0;
> while (<get a value>) i+= <count of something in value>
> Using the writer monad, this turns into
> execWriter $ mapM_ (write . countFunction) $ getValues
This should be in the documentation for Writer. It shows how a writer
can usefully and simply perform a specific function, and that function
is different from what most users would consider using a Writer for.
Hence, it's a specific example of both the advantages that generality
provides* and a programming use for a monoid.
*) just being more general isn't always an advantage. As abstractions
progress, iIt becomes increasingly difficult to apply abstract
concepts to the task at hand. This essay,
http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.219431.12, has a
pretty good description of taking this too far.
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