Proposal: alpha-rename the type signatures of foldl, foldl', and scanl to be consistent with foldr and scanr

[Roman Cheplyaka]

+1 to this "r" version.

Roman

* Dan Burton <danburton.email at gmail.com> [2012-10-14 12:47:46-0600]
> At the risk of useless bikeshedding... might I suggest "r" as a
> mnemonic for "result"?
> 
> foldl :: (a -> r -> r) -> r -> [a] -> r
> foldr :: (r -> a -> r) -> r -> [a] -> r
> 
> -- Dan Burton
> 
> 
> On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 12:33 PM, Andreas Abel <andreas.abel at ifi.lmu.de>wrote:
> 
> > +1 to all.
> >
> >
> > On 14.10.12 6:53 PM, Bas van Dijk wrote:
> >
> >> +1
> >>
> >> There are a few other functions in Data.List that could benefit from
> >> the same treatment:
> >>
> >> mapAccumL :: (acc -> x -> (acc, y)) -> acc -> [x] -> (acc, [y])
> >> mapAccumL :: (acc -> a -> (acc, b)) -> acc -> [a] -> (acc, [b])
> >>
> >> mapAccumR :: (acc -> x -> (acc, y)) -> acc -> [x] -> (acc, [y])
> >> mapAccumR :: (acc -> a -> (acc, b)) -> acc -> [a] -> (acc, [b])
> >>
> >> genericLength :: Num i => [b] -> i
> >> genericLength :: Num i => [a] -> i
> >>
> >> genericSplitAt :: Integral i => i -> [b] -> ([b], [b])
> >> genericSplitAt :: Integral i => i -> [a] -> ([a], [a])
> >>
> >> genericIndex :: Integral a => [b] -> a -> b
> >> genericIndex :: Integral i => [a] -> i -> a
> >>
> >> I'm not sure if we should change mapAccumL/R since 'a' and 'acc' are
> >> maybe too similar.
> >>
> >> Bas
> >>
> >> On 14 October 2012 16:28, Gábor Lehel <illissius at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Currently we have:
> >>>
> >>>      foldl :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> [b] -> a
> >>>
> >>>      foldr :: (a -> b -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b
> >>>
> >>> I find this confusing. My brain doesn't do automatic alpha-renaming,
> >>> so I end up thinking that these types are very different because they
> >>> look very different. In fact, they are almost the same.
> >>> Embarrassingly, it took me longer than it took to understand monads,
> >>> GADTs, PolyKinds, and several other things before I realized it!
> >>>
> >>> So I propose that we use 'a' consistently to denote the type of the
> >>> list elements, and 'b' to denote the type of the result:
> >>>
> >>>      foldl :: (b -> a -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b
> >>>
> >>>      foldr :: (a -> b -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b
> >>>
> >>> making it obvious that the only difference is the order of parameters
> >>> to the accumulator.
> >>>
> >>> The total change would be to replace
> >>>
> >>>      Prelude.foldl :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> [b] -> a
> >>>      Prelude.scanl :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> [b] -> [a]
> >>>      Data.List.foldl' :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> [b] -> a
> >>>      Data.Foldable.foldl :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> t b -> a
> >>>      Data.Foldable.foldl' :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> t b -> a
> >>>
> >>> with
> >>>
> >>>      Prelude.foldl :: (b -> a -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b
> >>>      Prelude.scanl :: (b -> a -> b) -> b -> [a] -> [b]
> >>>      Data.List.foldl' :: (b -> a -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b
> >>>      Data.Foldable.foldl :: (b -> a -> b) -> b -> t a -> b
> >>>      Data.Foldable.foldl' :: (b -> a -> b) -> b -> t a -> b
> >>>
> >>> I've attached a patch.
> >>>
> >>> Discussion period: 2 weeks
> >>>
> >>> Previously discussed at: http://www.reddit.com/r/**
> >>> haskell/comments/10q2ls/<http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/10q2ls/>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Your ship was destroyed in a monadic eruption.
> >>>
> >>> ______________________________**_________________
> >>> Libraries mailing list
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> >>>
> >>>
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> >>
> >>
> > --
> > Andreas Abel  <><      Du bist der geliebte Mensch.
> >
> > Theoretical Computer Science, University of Munich
> > Oettingenstr. 67, D-80538 Munich, GERMANY
> >
> > andreas.abel at ifi.lmu.de
> > http://www2.tcs.ifi.lmu.de/~**abel/ <http://www2.tcs.ifi.lmu.de/~abel/>
> >
> > ______________________________**_________________
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> >

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