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

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