[Haskell-cafe] What are "free" Monads?
sebf at informatik.uni-kiel.de
Tue Mar 2 03:53:27 EST 2010
On Mar 2, 2010, at 5:59 AM, Dan Doel wrote:
Nice, thank you for writing this.
> Feel free to make suggestions/changes.
I enjoyed reading it although Section 3 is challenging for people
(like me) who know algebra but do not know the exact meaning of the
mentioned terminology from CT even if they have read about it before.
It would be helpful to add intuitive explanations. For example, after
"Simplest" (in the sense we want) structures in that category
either be initial or terminal, and thus, freeness can be defined
of such universal constructions.
I missed sentences
Intuitively, "initial" means that ... and thus relates to the
description because ...
Final means ... and expresses the informal idea of ...
Similarly, subsequent uses of CT terminology (like 'forgetful functor'
and 'natural transformation') could be related to intuitions given
before (or new ones).
Underestimating the novelty of the future is a time-honored tradition.
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