Thoughts on the usage of await

[Eugleo]

Preface: I write Haskell for living, and even though I probably won’t be using this, I love the idea! Great job!

I’d like to discuss the syntax for executing effectful (monadic) computation as seen in this snippet

let mapM(f: (a) => m<b>, lst: List<a>): m<List<b>> where m : Effect
  = case (lst) {
      when Nil -> Nil.pure
      when Cons(x, xs) -> effect {
        let y  = await f(x)
        let ys = await xs.mapM(f)
        Cons(y, ys).pure
      }
    }

I think that this might lead the intended audience (developers familiar with C-style and specifically JS-style languages) astray, because the effects aren’t limited to async computations, but the await keyword suggests otherwise. I wonder why you made this choice (maybe there’s something I’m missing).

I think that a better choice would be something that has a notion of action baked in, while being general enough and not overburdened with existing meaning, like do or exec or run. What do you think?

[serras]

It’s not yet documented, but you can use do as synonym of await. What do you think?

El El lun, 10 ago 2020 a las 16:16, Evžen Wybitul [email protected] escribió:

Preface: I write Haskell for living, and even though I probably won’t be using this, I love the idea! Great job!

I’d like to discuss the syntax for executing effectful (monadic) computation as seen in this snippet

let mapM(f: (a) => m, lst: List): m<List> where m : Effect

= case (lst) {

  when Nil -> Nil.pure

  when Cons(x, xs) -> effect {

    let y  = await f(x)

    let ys = await xs.mapM(f)

    Cons(y, ys).pure

  }

}

I think that this might lead the intended audience (developers familiar with C-style and specifically JS-style languages) astray, because the effects aren’t limited to async computations, but the await keyword suggests otherwise. I wonder why you made this choice (maybe there’s something I’m missing).

I think that a better choice would be something that has a notion of action baked in, while being general enough and not overburdened with existing meaning, like do or exec or run. What do you think?

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/serras/hinc/issues/5, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AACLQVXWF6RX4KN65E5ABGTR776K7ANCNFSM4P2AEGSA .

-- Kind regards, Alejandro

[Eugleo]

Surely a step in the right direction IMHO. Why not ditch the await completely, though, given that it’ll be confusing in 99% of cases?