That's a great start, but "coproduct" is still pretty scary. Why not refer to it as OneOrTheOtherButNotBothDataConstructor?
-Nathan Bloomfield On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 11:32 AM, Sterling Clover <s.clo...@gmail.com>wrote: > This is a great effort, but the root of the problem isn't just poor > documentation, but an insistence on some obscure name. How about renaming > Bool to YesOrNoDataVariable? I think this would help novice programmers a > great deal. > > It would also make the documentation flow much more naturally: > > The Bool type is the coproduct of the terminal object with itself. > > --huh? > > The YesOrNoDataVariable is the coproduct of the terminal object with > itself. > > --Oh! Of course! > > --S > > > On Jan 18, 2009, at 12:17 PM, Benja Fallenstein wrote: > > On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 5:48 PM, <rocon...@theorem.ca> wrote: >> >>> I noticed the Bool datatype isn't well documented. Since Bool is not a >>> common English word, I figured it could use some haddock to help clarify >>> it >>> for newcomers. >>> >>> -- |The Bool datatype is named after George Boole (1815-1864). >>> -- The Bool type is the coproduct of the terminal object with itself. >>> >> >> Russell, this does seem like it might be very helpful, but it might be >> useful to include a note about what category you are working in. >> People may sometimes naively assume that one is working in the >> category of Haskell/Hugs/GHC data types and Haskell functions, in >> which there are no terminal -- or initial -- objects ('undefined' and >> 'const undefined' are distinct maps between any two objects X and Y), >> or else in the similar category without lifted bottoms, in which the >> empty type is terminal and the unit type isn't ('undefined' and 'const >> ()' are both maps from any object X to the unit type). These niceties >> will not confuse the advanced reader, but it may help the beginner if >> you are more explicit. >> >> - Benja >> >> >> P.S. :-) >> _______________________________________________ >> Libraries mailing list >> librar...@haskell.org >> http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries >> > > _______________________________________________ > Haskell-Cafe mailing list > Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe >
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