Tiny Identifier Dictionary
Haskellers often love their tiny identifiers, especially single letters and especially when they wrote the code. Other haskellers and especially non-haskellers hate them because they don't seem to mean anything, even when they do. Hopefully this dictionary can help!
Identifier(s) | Expansion | Domain | Description |
---|---|---|---|
e, env | environment | Compilers, interpreters and other language processors | An environment binding identifiers to something |
f | functor | ||
f,g,h | function | Higher-order programming | A function of some sort |
i | identifier | language processors | |
i,j,k | index | Data structures | |
k | key | Data structures | Similar to an index, used with data structures mapping keys to values |
k | konstant? | A number, probably a constant, as in n+k patterns | |
n,m | (natural?) number | Generally either a natural or an integer | |
m | monad | ||
t | time | Simulation, interaction, domains involving time | |
t | type | Compilers, type-checkers etc | |
v | value | Data structures, interpreters, ... | |
x,y,z | thingy, other thingy, wossname | Abstract code | Commonly used when we know nothing about the value in question |
xs,ys,zs | (list of) thingies | Abstract code | Lists of arbitrary values, or sometimes another collection type such as a set |