Re: [Haskell-cafe] meaning of "referential transparency"

Should probably include the Reddit convo ongoing as we speak (zomg, it's live!): http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/1bsitm/lazy_io_breaks_equational_re... Not everyone here is a regular there. -- Kim-Ee On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 1:21 AM, Eli Frey wrote:

Links

SO: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/210835/what-is-referential-transparency

Reddit discussions of said SO question.

http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/x8rr6/uday_reddy_on_referential_tra...

http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/xgq27/uday_reddy_sharpens_up_refere...

This was a fascinating exchange and I'm glad to be reminded to revisit it :).

On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 11:13 AM, Kim-Ee Yeoh wrote:

...

On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 12:43 AM, Henning Thielemann wrote:

...

Can someone enlighten me about the origin of the term "referential transparency"? I can lookup the definition of "referential transparency" in the functional programming sense in the Haskell Wiki and I can lookup the meaning of "reference" and "transparency" in a dictionary, but I don't know why these words were chosen as name for this defined property.

Instead of a immaculately precise definition, may I suggest going about it from the practical benefits POV? RT matters so much in Haskell because of the engineering leverage it gives us. Bird's Pearls are a good source of Why Equational Reasoning Matters.

-- Kim-Ee

_______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe