The way I have come to understand them (based on playing around with them and various tutorials) is that a functor is a mappable, something that can be mapped. Or, since fmap is equivalent to liftM, you could call them liftables. So if I have a function of type a -> b and a functor (let's say Maybe), then it makes sense that I can automatically create a function Maybe a -> Maybe b (thus lifting the function into the Maybe functor, or mapping a to b through (over/using) the Maybe functor).

2014-10-19 1:37 GMT+03:00 Frank <frankdmartinez@gmail.com>:

I've had a go at LYAH and CIS 194 and the Typeclassopedia and I just don't get get functors and applicatives. I'm simply not understanding them, what the various symbols/keywords mean, what they represent, how to think of them, etc. Nothing. Is there any kind of documented model I should be considering? Is there a "functors and applicatives for Dummies" I should read? Should I just give it up, not bother with Haskell and just stick to scheme/ruby/C++?

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