[Haskell-cafe] Seeking the correct quote

Jacques Carette carette at mcmaster.ca
Wed Apr 28 10:47:43 EDT 2010


Bradford Larsen wrote:
> I don't have the book handy (it was from the library), but I seem to
> remember reading something along those lines in ``Datatype-Generic
> Programming:  International Spring School, SSDGP 2006, Nottingham, UK,
> April 24-27, 2006, Revised Lectures'', edited by Backhouse, Gibbons,
> Hinze, and Jeuring.
>   
The spirit is there in quotes like

"The term ‘generic programming’ means different things to different people,
because they have different ideas about how to achieve the common goal 
of combining
flexibility and safety. To some people, it means parametric polymorphism;
to others, it means libraries of algorithms and data structures; to 
another group,
it means reflection and meta-programming; to us, it means polytypism, 
that is,
type-safe parametrization by a datatype "

and

"Moreover, a parametrization is usually only called ‘generic’ 
programming if it
is of a ‘non-traditional’ kind; by definition, traditional kinds of 
parametrization
give rise only to traditional programming, not generic programming.
Therefore, ‘genericity’ is in the eye of the beholder, with beholders 
from different
programming traditions having different interpretations of the term."

But nothing 'snappy'. Ah well.

Jacques


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