[Haskell-cafe] Why is $ right associative instead of left associative?

[Tomasz Zielonka]

On Sat, Feb 04, 2006 at 07:02:52PM -0500, ajb at spamcop.net wrote:
> G'day all.

Hello!

> Quoting Tomasz Zielonka <tomasz.zielonka at gmail.com>:
> 
> > Probably it was anticipated that right associative version will
> > be more useful. You can use it to create a chain of transformations,
> > similar to a chain of composed functions:
> >
> >     (f . g . h) x   =   f $ g $ h $ x
> 
> Of course, if $ were left-associative, it would be no less useful here,
> because you could express this chain thusly:
> 
>     f . g . h $ x

OK, I can be persuaded to use this style. I like function composition
much more than $ :-)

> This is the way that I normally express it.  Partly because I find
> function application FAR more natural than right-associative application,
> and partly because I'm hedging my bets for Haskell 2 just in case the
> standards committee wakes up and notices that the associativity of $ is
> just plain wrong and decides to fix it. :-)

Is there any chance that Haskell' will change the definition of $ ?

Well, if there is any moment where we can afford introducing backward
incompatible changes to Haskell', I think it's now or never!

> In fact, I'll go out on a limb and claim that ALL such uses of $ are
> better expressed with composition.  Anyone care to come up with a
> counter-example?

The only problem I see right now is related to change locality. If I
have a chain like this:

    f x y .
    g x $
    z

and I want to add some transformation between g and z I have to
change one line and insert another

    f x y .
    g x .
    h x y $
    z

With right-associative $ it would be only one line-add. Probably not a
very strong argument.

> > But of course, left associative version can also be useful. Some
> > time ago I used a left associative version of the strict application
> > operator, which I named (!$).
> 
> In fact, I think it's much MORE useful, and for precisely the reason
> that you state: it makes strict application much more natural.

Agreed.

Best regards
Tomasz

-- 
I am searching for programmers who are good at least in
(Haskell || ML) && (Linux || FreeBSD || math)
for work in Warsaw, Poland