[Haskell-cafe] Why Either = Left | Right instead of something like Result = Success | Failure

[Ionut G. Stan]

Hi,

I was just wondering if there's any particular reason for which the two 
constructors of the Either data type are named Left and Right. I'm 
thinking that something like Success | Failure or Right | Wrong would 
have been a little better.

I've recently seen that Scala uses a similar convention for some error 
notifications so I'm starting to believe there's more background behind 
it than just an unfortunate naming.

Thanks,
-- 
Ionuț G. Stan  |  http://igstan.ro