The Monadic Way
An evaluation of Philip Wadler's "Monads for functional programming"
This tutorial is a "translation" of Philip Wedler's "Monads for functional programming". (avail. from here)
I'm a Haskell newbie trying to grasp such a difficult concept as the ones of Monad and monadic computation. While "Yet Another Haskell Tutorial" gave me a good understanding of the type system when it comes to monads I find it almost unreadable.
But I had also Wedler's paper, and started reading it. Well, just wonderful! It explains how to create a monad!
So I decided to "translate it", in order to clarify to myself the topic. And I'm now sharing this traslation (not completed yet) with the hope it will be useful to someone else.
Moreover, that's a wiki, so please improve it. And, specifically, correct my poor English. I'm Italian, after all.
Note: The source of this page can be used as a Literate Haskel file nad can be run with ghci or hugs: so cut paste change'n run (in emacs for instance) while reading it...
A Simple Evaluator
Let's start with something simple: suppose we want to implement a new programming language. We just finished with Abelson and Sussman's Structure and Interpretation of ComputerPrograms and we want to test what we have learned.
Our programming language will be very simple: it will just compute the sum operation.
So we have just one primitive operation (Add) that takes two constants and calculates their sum
For instance, something like:
(Add (Con 5) (Con 6))
should yeld:
11
We will implement our language with the help of a data type constructor such as:
> module MyMonads where
> data Term = Con Int
> | Add Term Term
> deriving (Show)
After that we build our interpreter:
> eval :: Term -> Int
> eval (Con a) = a
> eval (Add a b) = eval a + eval b
That's it. Just an example:
*MyMonads> eval (Add (Con 5) (Con 6)) 11 *MyMonads>
Very very simple. The evaluator checks if its argument is a Con: if it is it just returns it.
If it's not a Cons, but it is a Term, it evaluates the right one and sums the result with the result of the evaluation of the second term.
Some Output, Please!
Now, that's fine, but we'd like to add some features, like providing some output, to show how the computation was carried out. Well, but Haskell is a pure functional language, with no side effects, we were told.
Now we seem to be wanting to create a side effect of the computation, its output, and be able to stare at it... If we had some global variable to store the out that would be simple...
But we can create the output and carry it along the computation, concatenating it with the old one, and present it at the end of the evaluation together with the evaluation of the expression!
Simple and neat!
> type MOut a = (a, Output)
> type Output = String
>
> formatLine :: Term -> Int -> Output
> formatLine t a = "eval (" ++ show t ++ ") <= " ++ show a ++ " - "
>
> evalO :: Term -> MOut Int
> evalO (Con a) = (a, formatLine (Con a) a)
> evalO (Add t u) = ((a + b),(x ++ y ++ formatLine (Add t u) (a + b)))
> where (a, x) = evalO t
> (b, y) = evalO u
Now we have what we want. But we had to change our evaluator quite a bit. First we added a function, that takes a Term (of the expression to be evaluated), an Int (the result of the evaluation) and gives back an output of type Output (that is a synonymous of String).
The evaluator changed quite a lot! Now it has a different type: it takes a Term data type and produces a new type, we called MOut, that is actually a pair of a variable type a (an Int in our evaluator) and a type Output, a string.
So our evaluator, now, will take a Term (the type of the expressions in our new programming language) and will produce a pair, composed of the result of the evaluation (an Int) and the Output, a string.
So far so good. But what's happening inside the evaluator?
The first part will just return a pair with the number evaluated and the output formatted by formatLine.
The second part does something more complicated: it returns a pair composed by 1. the result of the evaluation of the right Term summed to the result of the evaluation of the second Term 2. the output: the concatenation of the output produced by the evaluation of the right Term, the output produced by the evaluation of the left Term (each this evaluation returns a pair with the number and the output), and the formatted output of the evaluation.
Let's try it:
*MyMonads> evalO (Add (Con 5) (Con 6)) (11,"eval (Con 5) <= 5 - eval (Con 6) <= 6 - eval (Add (Con 5) (Con 6)) <= 11 - ") *MyMonads>
It works! Let's put the output this way:
eval (Con 5) <= 5 - eval (Con 6) <= 6 - eval (Add (Con 5) (Con 6)) <= 11 -
Great! We are able to produce a side effect of our evaluation and present it at the end of the computation, after all.
Let's have a closer look at this expression:
evalO (Add t u) = ((a + b),(x ++ y ++ formatLine (Add t u) (a + b)))
where (a, x) = evalO t
(b, y) = evalO u
Why all that? The problem is that we need "a" and "b" to calculate their sum, together with the output coming from their calculation (to be concatenated by the expression x ++ y ++ formatLine ...).
So we need to separate the pairs produced by "evalO t" and "eval u" (remember: eval now produces a value of type M Int, i.e. a pair of an Int and a String!).
Let's Go Monadic
Is there a more general way of doing so?
Let's analyze the evaluator from another perspective. From the type perspective.
We solved our problem by creating a new type, a pair of an Int (the result of the evaluation) and a String (the output of the process of evaluation).
The first part of the evaluator does nothing else but creating, from a value of type Int, an object of type M Int (Int,Output). It does so by creating a pair with that Int and some text.
The second part evaluates the two Term(s) and "stores" the values thus produced in some variables to be use later to compute the output.
Let's focus on the "stores" action. The correct term should be "binds".
Take a function:
f x = x + x
"x" appears on both sides of the expression. We say that on the right side "x" is bound to the value of x given on the left side.
So
f 3
binds x to 3 for the evaluation of the expression "x + x".
Our evaluator binds "a" and "x" / "b" and "y" with the evaluation of "eval t" and "eval u" respectively. "a","b","x" and "y" will be then used in the evaluation of ((a+)(x ++ ...).
We know that there is an ad hoc operator for binding variables to a value: lambda, or \.
Indeed f x = x + x is syntactic sugar for:
f = \x -> x + x
When we write f 3 we are actually binding "x" to 3 within what's next "->", that will be used (substituted) for evaluating f 3.
So we can try to abstract this phenomenon.
What we need is a function that takes our composed type MOut Int and a function in order to produce a new MOut Int, concatenating the output of the computation of the first with the output of the computation of the second.
This is what bindM does:
> bindM :: MOut a -> (a -> MOut b) -> MOut b
> bindM m f = (b, x ++ y)
> where (a, x) = m
> (b, y) = f a
It takes:
- "m": the compound type MOut Int carrying the result of an "eval Term",
- a function "f". This function will take the Int ("a") extracted by the evaluation of "m" ((a,x)=m). This function will produce anew pair: a new Int produced by a new evaluation; some new output.
bindM will return the new Int in pair with the concatenated outputs resulting from the evaluation of "m" and "f a".
So let's write the new version of the evaluator:
> evalM_1 :: Term -> MOut Int
> evalM_1 (Con a) = (a, formatLine (Con a) a)
> evalM_1 (Add t u) = bindM (evalM_1 t) (\a ->
> bindM (evalM_1 u) (\b ->
> ((a + b), formatLine (Add t u) (a + b))
> )
> )
Ugly, isn't it?
Let's start from the outside:
bindM (evalM_1 u) (\b -> ((a + b), formatLine (Add t u) (a + b)))
bindM takes the result of the evaluation "evalM_1 u", a type Mout Int, and a function. It will extract the Int from that type and use it to bind "b".
So in bindM (evalM_1 u)... "b" will be bound to a value.
Then the outer part (bindM (evalM_1 t) (\a...) will bind "a" to the value needed to evaluate "((a+b), formatLine...) and produce our final MOut Int.
We can write the evaluator in a more convinient way, now that we know what it does:
> evalM_2 :: Term -> MOut Int
> evalM_2 (Con a) = (a, formatLine (Con a) a)
> evalM_2 (Add t u) = evalM_2 t `bindM` \a ->
> evalM_2 u `bindM` \b ->
> ((a + b), (formatLine (Add t u) (a + b)))
Now, look at the first part:
evalM_2 (Con a) = (a, formatLine (Con a) a)
We could use a more general way of creating some output.
First we need a method for creating someting of type M a, starting from
something of type a. This is what evalM_2 (Con a) is doing, after all.
Very simply:
> mkM :: a -> MOut a
> mkM a = (a, "")
We then need to "insert" some text (Output) in our type M:
> outPut :: Output -> MOut ()
> outPut x = ((), x)
Very simple: we have a string "x" (Output) and create a pair with a () instead of an Int, and the output.
This way we will be able to define also this firts part in terms of bindM, that will take care of concatenating outputs.
So we have now a new evaluator:
> evalM_3 :: Term -> MOut Int
> evalM_3 (Con a) = outPut (formatLine (Con a) a) `bindM` \_ -> mkM a
> evalM_3 (Add t u) = evalM_3 t `bindM` \a ->
> evalM_3 u `bindM` \b ->
> outPut (formatLine (Add t u) (a + b)) `bindM` \_ -> mkM (a + b)
Well, this is fine, definetly better then before, anyway.
Still we use `bindM` \_ -> that binds something we do not use (_). We could write something for this case, when we concatenate computations without the need of binding variables. Let's call it `combineM`:
> combineM :: MOut a -> MOut b -> MOut b
> combineM m f = m `bindM` \_ -> f
So the new evaluator:
> evalM :: Term -> MOut Int
> evalM (Con a) = outPut (formatLine (Con a) a) `combineM`
> mkM a
> evalM (Add t u) = evalM t `bindM` \a ->
> evalM u `bindM` \b ->
> outPut (formatLine (Add t u) (a + b)) `combineM`
> mkM (a + b)
Let's put everything together (and change some names):
> type MO a = (a, Out)
> type Out = String
> mkMO :: a -> MO a
> mkMO a = (a, "")
> bindMO :: MO a -> (a -> MO b) -> MO b
> bindMO m f = (b, x ++ y)
> where (a, x) = m
> (b, y) = f a
> combineMO :: MO a -> MO b -> MO b
> combineMO m f = m `bindM` \_ -> f
> outMO :: Out -> MO ()
> outMO x = ((), x)
> evalMO :: Term -> MO Int
> evalMO (Con a) = outMO (formatLine (Con a) a) `combineMO`
> mkMO a
> evalMO (Add t u) = evalMO t `bindMO` \a ->
> evalMO u `bindMO` \b ->
> outMO (formatLine (Add t u) (a + b)) `combineMO`
> mkMO (a + b)
Some Sugar, Please!
Now our evaluator has been completely transformed into a monadic evaluator. That's what it is: a monad.
We have a function that constructs an object of type MO Int, formed by a pair: the result of the evaluation and the accumulated (concatenated) output.
The process of accumulation and the act of parting the MO Int into its component is buried into bindM, that can also preserve some value for later uses.
So we have:
- MO a type constructor for a type carrying a pair composed by an Int and a String;
- bindMO, that gives a direction to the process of evaluation: it concatenates computations and captures some side effects we created.
- mkOM lets us create an object of type MO Int starting from an Int.
As you see this is all we need to create a monad. In other words monads arise from the type system. Everything else is just syntactic sugar.
So, let's have a look to that sugar: the famous do-notation!
We will now rewrite our basic evaluator to use it with the do-notation.
Now we have to crate a new type: this is necessary in order to use specific monadic notation and have at our disposal the more practical do-notation.
> newtype Eval a = Eval a
> deriving (Show)
So, our type will be an instance of the monad class. We will have to define the methods of this class (>>= and return), but that will be easy since we already done that while defining bindMO and mkMO.
> instance Monad Eval where
> return a = Eval a
> Eval m >>= f = f m
And then we will take the old version of our evaluator and substitute `bindMO` with >>= and `mkMO` with return:
> evalM_4 :: Term -> Eval Int
> evalM_4 (Con a) = return a
> evalM_4 (Add t u) = evalM_4 t >>= \a ->
> evalM_4 u >>= \b ->
> return (a + b)
which is, in the do-notation:
> evalM_5 :: Term -> Eval Int
> evalM_5 (Con a) = return a
> evalM_5 (Add t u) = do a <- evalM_5 t
> b <- evalM_5 u
> return (a + b)
Simple: do binds the result of "eval_M5 t" to a, binds the result of "eval_M5 u" to b and then returns the sum. In a very imperative style.
We can now have an image of our monad: it is out type (Eval) that is made up of a pair: during evaluation the first member of the pair (the Int) will get the results of our computation (i.e.: the procedures to calculate the final result). The second part, the String called Output, will get filled up with the concatenated output of the computation.
The sequencing done by bindMO (now >>=) will take care of passing to the next evaluation the needed Int and will do some more side calculation to produce the output (concatenating outputs resulting from computation of the new Int, for instance).
So we can grasp the basic concept of a monad: it is like a label which we attach to each step of the evaluation (the String attached to the Int). This label is persistent within the process of computation and at each step bindMO can do some manipulation of it. We are creating side-effects and propagating them within our monads.
Ok. Let's translate our output-producing evaluator in monadic notation:
> newtype Eval_IO a = Eval_IO (a, O)
> deriving (Show)
> type O = String
> instance Monad Eval_IO where
> return a = Eval_IO (a, "")
> (>>=) m f = Eval_IO (b, x ++ y)
> where Eval_IO (a, x) = m
> Eval_IO (b, y) = f a
> print_IO :: O -> Eval_IO ()
> print_IO x = Eval_IO ((), x)
> eval_IO :: Term -> Eval_IO Int
> eval_IO (Con a) = do print_IO (formatLine (Con a) a)
> return a
> eval_IO (Add t u) = do a <- eval_IO t
> b <- eval_IO u
> print_IO (formatLine (Add t u) (a + b))
> return (a + b)
Let's see the evaluator with output in action:
*MyMonads> eval_IO (Add (Con 6) (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12))))
Eval_IO (54,"eval (Con 6) <= 6 - eval (Con 16) <= 16 - eval (Con 20) <= 20 - eval (Con 12) <= 12 - \
eval (Add (Con 20) (Con 12)) <= 32 - eval (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12))) <= 48 - \
eval (Add (Con 6) (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12)))) <= 54 - ")
*MyMonads>
Let's format the output part:
eval (Con 6) <= 6 eval (Con 16) <= 16 eval (Con 20) <= 20 eval (Con 12) <= 12 eval (Add (Con 20) (Con 12)) <= 32 eval (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12))) <= 48 eval (Add (Con 6) (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12)))) <= 54
What Happened to Our Output??
Well, actually something happened to the output. Let's compare the output of evalMO (the monadic evaluator written without the do-notation) and eval_IO:
*MyMonads> evalMO (Con 6) (6,"eval (Con 6) <= 6 - ") *MyMonads> eval_IO (Con 6) Eval_IO (6,"eval (Con 6) <= 6 - ") *MyMonads>
They look almost the same, but they are not the same: the output of eval_IO has the Eval_IO stuff. It must be related to the changes we had to do to our evaluator in order to use the do-conation, obviously.
What's changed?
First the type definition. We have now:
newtype Eval_IO a = Eval_IO (a, O)
deriving (Show)
instead of
type MO a = (a, Out)
Moreover our bindMO and mkMO functions changed too, to reflect the change of the type definition:
instance Monad Eval_IO where
return a = Eval_IO (a, "")
(>>=) m f = Eval_IO (b, x ++ y)
where Eval_IO (a, x) = m
Eval_IO (b, y) = f a
Now return a is the product of the application of the
type constructor Eval_IO to the pair that are going to form our monad.
"return" takes an Int and insert it into our monad. It will also insert a void String "" that (>>=) or (>>) will then concatenate in a sequence of computations they glue together.
The same for (>>=): it will now return something constructed by
Eval_IO: "b", the result of the application of "f" to "a" (better, the
binding of "a" in "f") and "x" (matched by Eval_IO (a, x) with
the evaluation of "m") and "y", (matched by "Eval_IO(b,y)" with the
evaluation of "f a".
That is to say: in the "where" clause, we are matching for the elements paired in a type Eval_IO: this is indeed the type of "m" (corresponding to "eval_IO t" in the body of the evaluator) and "f a" (where "f" correspond to another application of "eval_IO" to the result of the previous application of "m").
And so, "Eval_IO (a,x) = m" means: match "a" and "x", paired in a type Eval_IO, and that are produced by the evaluation of "m" (that is to say: "eval_IO t"). The same for Eval_IO (b,y): match "b" and "y" produced by the evaluation of "f a".
So the output of the evaluator is now not simply a pair made of and Int and a String. It is a specific type (Eval_IO) that happens to carry a pair of an Int and a String. But, if we want the Int and the string, we have to extract them from the Eval_IO type, as we do in the "where" clause: we unpack our type object (let's call it with its name: our monad!) and take out the Int and the String to feed the next function application and the output generation.
The same to insert something in our monad: if we want to create a pair of an Int and a String, pair of type Eval_IO, we now have to pack the together by using our type constructor, feeding it with pair composed by and Int and a String. This is what we do with the "return" method of out monad and with "print_IO" function, where:
- return insert into the monad an Int;
- print_IO insert into the monad a String.
Notice that "combineM" disappeared. This is because it comes for free by just defining our type Eval_IO as an instance of the Monad class.
Indeed, if we look at the definition of the Monad class in the Prelude we read:
class Monad m where
return :: a -> m a
(>>=) :: m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b
(>>) :: m a -> m b -> m b
fail :: String -> m a
-- Minimal complete definition: (>>=), return
p >> q = p >>= \ _ -> q
fail s = error s
You can see that the "combineM"" method (or (>>)) is automatically derived by
the "bindMO" (or >>=) method:
p >> q = p >>= \ _ -> q
So, what the hell is the old type MO a = (a, Out) that
did not required all this additional work (apart the need to
specifically define (>>)?
Thanks the help of some nice guy of the haskell-cafe mailing list (look at the thread started by this silly question of mine) we can answer.
Type MO is just a synonymous for (a,Out): the two can be substituted one for the other. That's it.
We did not have to pack "a" and "Out" together with a type constructor to have a new type MO.
As a consequence, we cannot use MO as an instance of Monad, and so, we cannot use with it the syntactic sugar we needed: the do-notation.
That is to say: a type created with the "type" keyword cannot be an instance of a class, and cannot inherits its methods (in our case (>>=, >> and return). And without those methods the do-notation is not usable.
Anyway we will better understand all the far reaching consequences of this new approach later on.
We Need A State
That's it. For today...
This is the code for the next part, to be analyzed in this section.
> -- non monadic
> evalNMS :: Term -> MS Int
> evalNMS (Con a) x = (a, x + 1)
> evalNMS (Add t u) x = let (a, y) = evalNMS t x in
> let (b, z) = evalNMS u y in
> (a + b, z +1)
Monadic
> -- monadic
> type MS a = State -> (a, State)
> type State = Int
> mkMS :: a -> MS a
> mkMS a = \x -> (a, x)
> bindMS :: MS a -> (a -> MS b) -> MS b
> bindMS m f = \x ->
> let (a, y) = m x in
> let (b, z) = f a y in
> (b, z)
> combineMS :: MS a -> MS b -> MS b
> combineMS m f = m `bindMS` \_ -> f
> incState :: MS ()
> incState = \s -> ((), s + 1)
> evalMS :: Term -> MS Int
> evalMS (Con a) = incState `combineMS` mkMS a
> evalMS (Add t u) = evalMS t `bindMS` \a ->
> evalMS u `bindMS` \b ->
> incState `combineMS` mkMS (a + b)
> --evalMS (Add (Con 6) (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12)))) 0
State and Output
> -- state and output
> type MSO a = State -> (a, State, Output)
> mkMSO :: a -> MSO a
> mkMSO a = \s -> (a, s, "")
> bindMSO :: MSO a -> (a -> MSO b) -> MSO b
> bindMSO m f = \x ->
> let (a, y, s1) = m x in
> let (b, z, s2) = f a y in
> (b, z, s1 ++ s2)
> combineMSO :: MSO a -> MSO b -> MSO b
> combineMSO m f = m `bindMSO` \_ -> f
> incMSOstate :: MSO ()
> incMSOstate = \s -> ((), s + 1, "")
> outMSO :: Output -> MSO ()
> outMSO = \x s -> ((),s, x)
> evalMSO :: Term -> MSO Int
> evalMSO (Con a) = incMSOstate `combineMSO`
> outMSO (formatLine (Con a) a) `combineMSO`
> mkMSO a
> evalMSO (Add t u) = evalMSO t `bindMSO` \a ->
> evalMSO u `bindMSO` \b ->
> incMSOstate `combineMSO`
> outMSO (formatLine (Add t u) (a + b)) `combineMSO`
> mkMSO (a + b)
> --evalMSO (Add (Con 6) (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12)))) 0
State, Output and do-notation
> -- thanks to Brian Hulley
> newtype MSIO a = MSIO (State -> (a, State, Output))
> instance Monad MSIO where
> return a = MSIO (\s -> (a, s, ""))
> (MSIO m) >>= f = MSIO $ \x ->
> let (a, y, s1) = m x in
> let MSIO runNextStep = f a in
> let (b, z, s2) = runNextStep y in
> (b, z, s1 ++ s2)
> incMSOIstate :: MSIO ()
> incMSOIstate = MSIO (\s -> ((), s + 1, ""))
> print_MSOI :: Output -> MSIO ()
> print_MSOI x = MSIO (\s -> ((),s, x))
> eval_MSOI :: Term -> MSIO Int
> eval_MSOI (Con a) = do incMSOIstate
> print_MSOI (formatLine (Con a) a)
> return a
> eval_MSOI (Add t u) = do a <- eval_MSOI t
> b <- eval_MSOI u
> incMSOIstate
> print_MSOI (formatLine (Add t u) (a + b))
> return (a + b)
> run_MSOI :: MSIO a -> State -> (a, State, Output)
> run_MSOI (MSIO f) s = f s
> --run_MSOI (eval_MSOI (Add (Con 6) (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12))))) 0
Version 2
> -- Thanks Udo Stenzel
> newtype Eval_SOI a = Eval_SOI { unPackMSOIandRun :: State -> (a, State, Output) }
> instance Monad Eval_SOI where
> return a = Eval_SOI (\s -> (a, s, ""))
> (>>=) m f = Eval_SOI (\x ->
> let (a, y, s1) = unPackMSOIandRun m x in
> let (b, z, s2) = unPackMSOIandRun (f a) y in
> (b, z, s1 ++ s2))
> incSOIstate :: Eval_SOI ()
> incSOIstate = Eval_SOI (\s -> ((), s + 1, ""))
> print_SOI :: Output -> Eval_SOI ()
> print_SOI x = Eval_SOI (\s -> ((),s, x))
> eval_SOI :: Term -> Eval_SOI Int
> eval_SOI (Con a) = do incSOIstate
> print_SOI (formatLine (Con a) a)
> return a
> eval_SOI (Add t u) = do a <- eval_SOI t
> b <- eval_SOI u
> incSOIstate
> print_SOI (formatLine (Add t u) (a + b))
> return (a + b)
> --unPackMSOIandRun (eval_SOI (Add (Con 6) (Add (Con 16) (Add (Con 20) (Con 12))))) 0
(TO BE CONTINUED)
If There's A State We Need Some Law
- Exception handling
- Getting rid of formatLine: "let" in monadic operations.
- Debugging output and Exceptions
Suggested Readings
Cale Gibbard, Monads as Containers
Jeff Newbern, All About Monads
You Could Have Invented Monads! (And Maybe You Already Have.) by sigfpe
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Neil Mitchell, Daniel Fisher, Bulat Ziganzhin, Brian Hulley and Udo Stenzel for the invaluable help they gave, in the haskell-cafe mailing list, in understanding this topic.
I couldn't do it without their help.
Obviously errors are totally mine. But this is a wiki so, please, correct them!