[Haskell-cafe] Monad explanation

[Tim Newsham]

> You are absolutely right.  The statement
>  "The values of the IO monad are programs that do IO. "
> is somewhat nonsensical. Values don't do anything, they just are.
> But values of the IO monad *describe* how to do IO; they can be seen
> as a recipe for doing IO.
> A recipe doesn't cook a dish, but when the recipe is executed by a
> cook they creates a dish.
> An IO values doesn't do IO, but when it is executed by the runtime
> system IO happens.

Just as a recipe describes how to cook something, a program describes
how to accomplish something.  The program doesnt "do" anything
until it is executed.  However, we often use the word "do" to
describe what a program will do when executed (even though
its really the cpu that is actually "doing").

> This is one way of interpreting what the IO type means.
> (Another one is to say that Haskell is just an imperative programming
> language, but any imperative actions show up in the type.)

I don't see the difference between these two interpretations.
Wether the program is made up of instructions for a cpu or for
an interpreter seems irrelevant.

>  -- Lennart

Tim Newsham
http://www.thenewsh.com/~newsham/