[Haskell-cafe] meaning of "referential transparency"

[Kim-Ee Yeoh]

On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 12:43 AM, Henning Thielemann
<lemming at henning-thielemann.de> wrote:
> Can someone enlighten me about the origin of the term "referential
> transparency"? I can lookup the definition of "referential transparency" in
> the functional programming sense in the Haskell Wiki and I can lookup the
> meaning of "reference" and "transparency" in a dictionary, but I don't know
> why these words were chosen as name for this defined property.

Instead of a immaculately precise definition, may I suggest going
about it from the practical benefits POV? RT matters so much in
Haskell because of the engineering leverage it gives us. Bird's Pearls
are a good source of Why Equational Reasoning Matters.

-- Kim-Ee