names, modules, types

[Fergus Henderson]

On 07-Feb-2001, Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk <qrczak@knm.org.pl> wrote:
> So why is fmap separate now? Probably because having too much
> overloading causes ambiguities.

Perhaps.  But I think there may be other reasons too.

Having fmap separate is useful for beginners and for teaching,
because you can describe `map' without having to talk about type classes.
Also, it is possible that the error messages that you get when you
make a mistake using `fmap' might be harder to understand.

The reasoning here is similar to the reasons that Haskell 98 has list
comprehensions rather than monad comprehensions.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh@cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
                                    |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.