I have been trying to figure out the distinction between value, function and computation. You raised a few points that I am not sure about.
In " "Computation" considered harmful. "Value" not so hot either." you said: I still don't like it; a lambda expression is not a computation, it's a formal *representation* of a mathematical object (a *value*). Isn't the lambda expression a representation of something (potentially with recursion) that yields "a value" and not the value itself? Even integer which we think of as values are represented in the same way: http://safalra.com/science/lambda-calculus/integer-arithmetic/ In " Fixing Haskell IO" you say: This "works" well enough; GHC manages to perform IO. But it doesn't fly > mathematically. Mathematical objects *never* act, sing, dance, or > *do*anything. They just are. A value that acts is an oxymoron. > I guess I am not sure what a "mathematical object" is. Do you consider Newton method a mathematical object? What would be the "value" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_method#Square_root_of_a_number Since I have been thinking about Haskell, Monads, etc. I am starting to think about the saying "Life is a journey, not a destination" to imply life is a computation not a value. daryoush 2009/2/13 Gregg Reynolds <d...@mobileink.com> > Many thanks to everybody who tried to set me straight on the thread about > IO monad and evaluation semantics. I've begun summarizing the info, and I > believe I've come up with a much better way of explaining IO; just flip the > semantic perspective, and think in terms of interpretations instead of > actions. Voila! Oxymoron (values that perform actions) eliminated. See > the "Computation considered harmful" and "Fixing Haskell IO" articles at > http://syntax.wikidot.com/blog > > Naturally I would be grateful for any corrections/comments. > > Thanks, > > gregg > > _______________________________________________ > Haskell-Cafe mailing list > Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe > >
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