Tiny Identifier Dictionary

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Revision as of 20:02, 26 March 2010 by PhilippaCowderoy (talk | contribs) (More additions)
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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
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) lhingies Abstract code Lists of arbitrary values, or sometimes another collection type such as a set