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Rename "Nothing" to "Something"

Open dsyme opened this issue 9 years ago • 4 comments

With the proposal to add Zero, I suggest we rename "Nothing" to "One", or perhaps "Something".

dsyme avatar Mar 06 '15 22:03 dsyme

"Nothing" has an instance. Therefore, it is something. We should either make the instance private (them its really nothing at least from outside) or we should rename it to be something

vossccp avatar Mar 07 '15 16:03 vossccp

Yes, @gregyoung tries to make nothing, and he still ends up with something.

dsyme avatar Mar 07 '15 17:03 dsyme

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'! Audrey Hepburn

gregoryyoung avatar Mar 10 '15 18:03 gregoryyoung

This issue goes to the heart of differences in traditions in computing.

In the algebraic tradition, adding data to a type is multiplicative, and nothing is "one" or "unit". So tuple types are written "int * int" with the idea that "unit * int * int" is still "int *int"

In the object oriented tradition, emptiness is nothingness is zero. Hence the name of this repo. In this tradition, it's unclear what "one" is.

So additive of multiplicative? Where do you stand?

dsyme avatar Oct 27 '20 10:10 dsyme