On 24 Jul 2011, at 19:19, KC wrote:

I like the following but again "+" denotes addition and not a general
binary operation.

I personally often define the alias:

(<+>) = mappend

A lot of math books use "+" or "x" enclosed in a circle to indicate
that the usual meaning of "+" nor "x" is intended for the meaning of
the binary operation.

Er no. Both symbols have extremely precise meanings. $\oplus$ is the direct sum of two modules and $\otimes$ is their tensor product.

Personally, I wish, given that an additive monad is a kind of monoid, that the names for the zero and addition operations for the two classes were the same. That said, I am not especially happy with mzero and madd, given that their implication, that the monoid is abelian, is generally false.

I can't figure out if this would compile, the inside "()" representing a circle.

((+)) = mappend

It would be easier for beginners to "grok".

I don't think so... but while we're at it, what's with that weird name
"Monoid" anyway, let alone "Functor", "Monad", etc.? ;-)

Ivan: I had thought those were words expressing valid mathematical concepts.

In order to find similarities between apparently different operations
& data one wants to reason abstractly; similar to mathematics.

--
--
Regards,
KC

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