X-Git-Url: http://lambda.jimpryor.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lambda.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=topics%2Fweek1_advanced_notes.mdwn;h=8b6289a690abb48e7b2b4f7d8795889f3aba7924;hp=197456578e4d5920ef03a545558f9edcc155f4cc;hb=8d0fcac289637208d8f22cbfba091e47ecb1a39f;hpb=bd4b9f540acc1988d66420c3bce6e02687b31660 diff --git a/topics/week1_advanced_notes.mdwn b/topics/week1_advanced_notes.mdwn index 19745657..8b6289a6 100644 --- a/topics/week1_advanced_notes.mdwn +++ b/topics/week1_advanced_notes.mdwn @@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ If we get to the `y & ys` line in the pattern list, and the pattern-match succee Sometimes it's useful to bind variables against overlapping parts of a structure. For instance, suppose I'm writing a pattern that is to be matched against multivalues like `([10, 20], 'true)`. And suppose I want to end up with `ys` bound to `[10, 20]`, `x` bound to `10`, and `xs` bound to `[20]`. Using the techniques introduced so far, I have two options. First, I could bind `ys` against `[10, 20]`, and then initiate a second pattern-match to break that up into `10` and `[20]`. Like this: case ([10, 20], 'true) of - [ys, _] then case ys of + (ys, _) then case ys of x & xs then ...; ... end; @@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ Sometimes it's useful to bind variables against overlapping parts of a structure Alternatively, I could directly bind `x` against `10` and `xs` against `[20]`. But then I would have to re-cons them together again to get `ys`. Like this: case ([10, 20], 'true) of - [x & xs, _] then let + (x & xs, _) then let ys match x & xs in ...; ... @@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ Alternatively, I could directly bind `x` against `10` and `xs` against `[20]`. B Both of these strategies work. But they are a bit inefficient. I said you didn't really need to worry about efficiency in this seminar. But these are also a bit cumbersome to write. There's a special syntax that enables us to bind all three of `ys`, `x`, and `xs` in the desired way, despite the fact that they will be matching against overlapping, rather than discrete, parts of the value `[10, 20]`. The special syntax looks like this: case ([10, 20], 'true) of - [(x & xs) as ys, _] then ... + ((x & xs) as ys, _) then ... ... end @@ -197,18 +197,18 @@ All of this only works with infix operators like `-`, `&` and `+`. You can't wri Can you guess what our shortcut for the last function will be? It's `( + )`. That expresses a function that takes two arguments `(x, y)` and evaluates to `x + y`. -Wait a second, you say. Isn't that just what `+` does *already*? Why am I making a distinction between `+` and `(+)`? The difference is that bare `+` without any parentheses is an *infix* operator that comes between its arguments. Whereas when we wrap it with parentheses, it loses its special infix syntax and then just behaves like a plain variable denoting a function, like `swap`. Thus whereas we write: +Wait a second, you say. Isn't that just what `+` does *already*? Why am I making a distinction between `+` and `( + )`? The difference is that bare `+` without any parentheses is an *infix* operator that comes between its arguments. Whereas when we wrap it with parentheses, it loses its special infix syntax and then just behaves like a plain variable denoting a function, like `swap`. Thus whereas we write: x + y if we want to use `( + )`, we have to instead write: - (+) (x, y) + ( + ) (x, y) It may not be obvious now why this would ever be useful, but sometimes it will be. All of these shorthands `(10 - )`, `( & ys)` and `( + )` are called "sections". I don't know exactly why. -Confession: actually, what I described here diverges *a bit* from how OCaml and Haskell treat `( + )`. They wouldn't really write `(+) (x, y)` like I did. Instead they'd write `(+) x y`. We will look at the difference between these next week. +Confession: actually, what I described here diverges *a bit* from how OCaml and Haskell treat `( + )`. They wouldn't really write `( + ) (x, y)` like I did. Instead they'd write `( + ) x y`. We will look at the difference between these next week.