[Haskell-cafe] Where does the name "Algebraic data types" come from?

Artem Pelenitsyn a.pelenitsyn at gmail.com
Fri Aug 7 20:45:23 UTC 2020


Hey Li-yao,

This sort of questions is really popular in the TYPES mailing list: you
might want to ask there, e.g. if nothing comes up here.

—
Best, Artem

On Fri, Aug 7, 2020 at 4:15 PM Li-yao Xia <lysxia at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Café,
>
> What makes "algebraic data types" algebraic? There are at least two
> common explanations in use:
>
> 1. Algebraic data types are defined using sums and products of types, by
> analogy with, well, concepts from algebra.
>
> 2. Algebraic data types are initial algebras.
>
> There are numerous blogs online explaining "algebraic data types" that
> way, with a large majority adopting the more approachable explanation (1).
>
> The question is, how did the appellation "algebraic" come about
> historically? Did it start with one or both of the meanings above?
>
> The language feature, independently of the name, seems attributed to the
> HOPE language[1] (see for instance A History of Haskell: Being Lazy with
> Class[2]). However, the paper introducing HOPE does not use the word
> "algebraic" anywhere. Other papers on the topic do not discuss the
> origins of the word. I am curious about citations regarding the history
> of the name "algebraic data types" itself.
>
> Regards,
> Li-yao
>
> [1]: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.18.8135
> [2]:
>
> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/history.pdf
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