Newbie qustion about monads

[Alastair Reid]

> As Derek has
> pointed out, I'm yet far from reaching a point where I should worry
> about that :)

_If_ you understand Haskell but not monads, I think it is entirely legitimate 
to start with the implementation and then proceed to the uses.  A bottom-up 
approach instead of a top-down approach.

This is the approach of Will Partain's old 'country boys guide to 
monads' (which I can't find a copy of).  He started with examples of 
non-monadic code where you couldn't see what was going on because of all the 
'plumbing' required to make sure you had a supply of fresh names here and a 
current substitution there and showed how a monad could cleanup the plumbing.

Of course, this only works if you've written enough of the right kind of code 
that the examples make sense...

--
Alastair Reid    www.haskell-consulting.com