[Haskell-cafe] Re: Help mixing pure and IO code

[Heinrich Apfelmus]

Luke Palmer wrote:
> Hector Guilarte <hectorg87 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> f:: [int] -> (a,[Int])
>> f randomList =
>>     let (usedRandomNumber,newRandomList) = g randomList
>>     in (usedRandomNumber,newRandomList)
> 
> This pattern can be encapsulated in a monad:
> 
> newtype RandM a = RandM { unRandM :: [Int] -> (a,[Int]) }
> 
> instance Monad RandM where
> [...]
> 
> See the similarity?
> 
> Of course, there is no need to implement this yourself.  It is already
> implemented as State [Int].  And as long as you are doing that, you
> might as well use Rand from the MonadRandom package.  In fact, I have
> argued that you should use MonadRandom instead of the lower-level
> System.Random whenever possible:
> http://lukepalmer.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/use-monadrandom/

The rationale being that  RandM a  has a natural interpretation as
"random variable of type a" with no reference to how it's actually
implemented.


Regards,
Heinrich Apfelmus

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