[Haskell-cafe] Origins of (x:xs)?

Dougal Stanton ithika at gmail.com
Tue Dec 19 18:01:49 EST 2006


Quoth Toby Hutton, nevermore:

> Does anyone know why (x:xs)?  Is xs meant to be a synonym for 'excess'?

I've seen it said somewhere (possibly Hudak's _Haskell School of 
Expression_) that "xs" should be read as the plural of "x". Although 
personally I always gravitate towards the "excess" notion, because it's 
such a nice word ;-)

-- 
Dougal Stanton


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