[Haskell-cafe] Re: Doubting Haskell

[Wolfgang Jeltsch]

Am Sonntag, 17. Februar 2008 10:12 schrieb Colin Paul Adams:
> The mnemonics is that Right x is "right" in the sense of
> correct. So, the error case has to be Left err .
>
> As I said, this is sinister (i.e. regarding left-handed people as
> evil).

I hardly can believe that you mean this seriously.  Do you really think that 
the Haskell architects wanted to offend left-handed people?  What does assure 
you that the names of the Either constructors are about handedness?  Are you 
really so sensitive that you want to make people think about all kinds of 
misinterpretations the usage of an everyday word may cause before they use 
it?  I’d propose that people don’t search for non-existent defamation so that 
productivity doesn’t get buried under the search for “politically correct” 
words.

Actually, I wouldn’t have dreamed of Left being related to left-handedness.  
To me, it has long been very clear that Left and Right were assigned its 
meaning this way round because otherwise you wouldn’t get Functor and Monad 
instances.  A pure technical reason, having nothing to do with hands, 
politics and whatever you might think of.

> […]

Best wishes,
Wolfgang