Python-based monads essay part 2

[Gregory Ewing]

Chris Angelico wrote:
> You can take your
> original set-builder monad and turn it into genuinely functional code;
> show me that you can do the same with I/O. Otherwise, what you're
> really saying is "we can cheat until we can do I/O", not "we can do
> I/O in a functional way".

I don't think I'm saying either of those things.

What I'm saying is, monads provide a way of reasoning
algebraically about sequential programs.

The things being reasoned about -- the actions -- are
not themselves functions, but that doesn't mean there's
any cheating going on. Would you say it was cheating
to perform algebraic manipulations on an expression
involving numbers or strings? Why should it be any
different when the things being manipulated represent
actions that affect the world?

I may not have brought this point out as clearly as
I could have in the essay. Looking back, I can see
that the phrase "perform I/O in a functional way" is
open to misinterpretation. I didn't mean to say that
we can write a function (in the mathematical sense)
that performs I/O, only that we can apply functional
techniques if we represent I/O in a particular way.

If you still want to call that "cheating" I can't
stop you, but I think you're directing your scorn at
an imagined claim that functional programmers are not
actually making. In so doing you risk missing potential
benefits of what they actually are claiming.

-- 
Greg