Re: [Haskell-cafe] Why does Haskell have the if-then-else syntax?

On Jul 26, 2006, at 6:44 PM, Sebastian Sylvan wrote:

For example ...

if :: Bool -> a -> a -> a if True t _ = t if False _ e = e

-- example usage myAbs x = if (x < 0) (negate x) x

I suppose there might also be a case for flipping the arguments about like this: if :: a -> a -> Bool -> a if t _ True = t if _ e False = e This way it would follow foldr more closely, in recognition that the conditional is essentially the fold/cata/eliminator/... for booleans. But argument order is a pretty trivial thing, and I think the committee made the right choice with if-then-else as a language construct. -- Fritz