[Haskell-cafe] Exercise in point free-style

[Julien Oster]

Udo Stenzel wrote:

Thank you all a lot for helping me, it's amazing how quickly I received
these detailed answers!

> func2 f g l = filter f (map g l)
> func2 f g = (filter f) . (map g)	-- definition of (.)
> func2 f g = ((.) (filter f)) (map g)	-- desugaring
> func2 f = ((.) (filter f)) . map   	-- definition of (.)
> func2 f = flip (.) map ((.) (filter f)) -- desugaring, def. of flip
> func2 = flip (.) map . (.) . filter 	-- def. of (.), twice
> func2 = (. map) . (.) . filter		-- add back some sugar

Aaaah. After learning from Neil's answer and from @pl that (.) is just
another infix function, too (well, what else should it be, but it wasn't
clear to me) I still wasn't able to come up with that solution without
hurting my brain. The desugaring was the bit that was missing. Thanks, I
will keep that in mind for other infix functions as well.

I tried to work it out on paper again, without looking at your posting
while doing it. I did almost the same thing, however, I did not use
flip. Instead the last few steps read:

  = ((.) (filter f)) . map  g l
  = (.)((.) . filter f)(map)  g l	-- desugaring
  = (.map)((.) . filter f)  g l		-- sweeten up
  = (.map) . (.) . filter  g l		-- definition of (.)

I guess that's possible as well?

> The general process is called "lambda elimination" and can be done
> mechanically.  Ask Goole for "Unlambda", the not-quite-serious
> programming language; since it's missing the lambda, its manual explains
> lambda elimination in some detail.  I think, all that's needed is flip,
> (.) and liftM2.

Will do, thank you!

Cheers,
Julien