Michael P Mossey wrote:
I was looking at some code, saw a variable x, and said to myself, "Ah that variable is a monad." Then I realized "Monad" is the name of a type class. So maybe x should be called "an instance of a Monad." I think the word "instance" in this case is OO-like; but in Haskell "instance" refers to a type that is an instance of a type class. Or maybe it can refer to both? And Monad is a type class, not a type. Maybe I need the phrase "monadic type" to refer to an instance of a type class. So maybe x is just "a variable of a monadic type"?
One common nomenclature is to say that x is a "monadic action" or just "action" for short. That's the terminology used in the Simon Peyton Jones. Tackling the awkward squad. http://research.microsoft.decenturl.com/awkward-squad tutorial. Regards, apfelmus -- http://apfelmus.nfshost.com