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- /*!
- @file
- Forward declares `boost::hana::Monad`.
- @copyright Louis Dionne 2013-2017
- Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
- (See accompanying file LICENSE.md or copy at http://boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
- */
- #ifndef BOOST_HANA_FWD_CONCEPT_MONAD_HPP
- #define BOOST_HANA_FWD_CONCEPT_MONAD_HPP
- #include <boost/hana/config.hpp>
- BOOST_HANA_NAMESPACE_BEGIN
- //! @ingroup group-concepts
- //! @defgroup group-Monad Monad
- //! The `Monad` concept represents `Applicative`s with the ability to
- //! flatten nested levels of structure.
- //!
- //! Historically, Monads are a construction coming from category theory,
- //! an abstract branch of mathematics. The functional programming
- //! community eventually discovered how Monads could be used to
- //! formalize several useful things like side effects, which led
- //! to the wide adoption of Monads in that community. However, even
- //! in a multi-paradigm language like C++, there are several constructs
- //! which turn out to be Monads, like `std::optional`, `std::vector` and
- //! others.
- //!
- //! Everybody tries to introduce `Monad`s with a different analogy, and
- //! most people fail. This is called the [Monad tutorial fallacy][1]. We
- //! will try to avoid this trap by not presenting a specific intuition,
- //! and we will instead present what monads are mathematically.
- //! For specific intuitions, we will let readers who are new to this
- //! concept read one of the many excellent tutorials available online.
- //! Understanding Monads might take time at first, but once you get it,
- //! a lot of patterns will become obvious Monads; this enlightening will
- //! be your reward for the hard work.
- //!
- //! There are different ways of defining a Monad; Haskell uses a function
- //! called `bind` (`>>=`) and another one called `return` (it has nothing
- //! to do with C++'s `return` statement). They then introduce relationships
- //! that must be satisfied for a type to be a Monad with those functions.
- //! Mathematicians sometimes use a function called `join` and another one
- //! called `unit`, or they also sometimes use other category theoretic
- //! constructions like functor adjunctions and the Kleisli category.
- //!
- //! This library uses a composite approach. First, we use the `flatten`
- //! function (equivalent to `join`) along with the `lift` function from
- //! `Applicative` (equivalent to `unit`) to introduce the notion of
- //! monadic function composition. We then write the properties that must
- //! be satisfied by a Monad using this monadic composition operator,
- //! because we feel it shows the link between Monads and Monoids more
- //! clearly than other approaches.
- //!
- //! Roughly speaking, we will say that a `Monad` is an `Applicative` which
- //! also defines a way to compose functions returning a monadic result,
- //! as opposed to only being able to compose functions returning a normal
- //! result. We will then ask for this composition to be associative and to
- //! have a neutral element, just like normal function composition. For
- //! usual composition, the neutral element is the identity function `id`.
- //! For monadic composition, the neutral element is the `lift` function
- //! defined by `Applicative`. This construction is made clearer in the
- //! laws below.
- //!
- //! @note
- //! Monads are known to be a big chunk to swallow. However, it is out of
- //! the scope of this documentation to provide a full-blown explanation
- //! of the concept. The [Typeclassopedia][2] is a nice Haskell-oriented
- //! resource where more information about Monads can be found.
- //!
- //!
- //! Minimal complete definitions
- //! ----------------------------
- //! First, a `Monad` must be both a `Functor` and an `Applicative`.
- //! Also, an implementation of `flatten` or `chain` satisfying the
- //! laws below for monadic composition must be provided.
- //!
- //! @note
- //! The `ap` method for `Applicatives` may be derived from the minimal
- //! complete definition of `Monad` and `Functor`; see below for more
- //! information.
- //!
- //!
- //! Laws
- //! ----
- //! To simplify writing the laws, we use the comparison between functions.
- //! For two functions `f` and `g`, we define
- //! @code
- //! f == g if and only if f(x) == g(x) for all x
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //! With the usual composition of functions, we are given two functions
- //! @f$ f : A \to B @f$ and @f$ g : B \to C @f$, and we must produce a
- //! new function @f$ compose(g, f) : A \to C @f$. This composition of
- //! functions is associative, which means that
- //! @code
- //! compose(h, compose(g, f)) == compose(compose(h, g), f)
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //! Also, this composition has an identity element, which is the identity
- //! function. This simply means that
- //! @code
- //! compose(f, id) == compose(id, f) == f
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //! This is probably nothing new if you are reading the `Monad` laws.
- //! Now, we can observe that the above is equivalent to saying that
- //! functions with the composition operator form a `Monoid`, where the
- //! neutral element is the identity function.
- //!
- //! Given an `Applicative` `F`, what if we wanted to compose two functions
- //! @f$ f : A \to F(B) @f$ and @f$ g : B \to F(C) @f$? When the
- //! `Applicative` `F` is also a `Monad`, such functions taking normal
- //! values but returning monadic values are called _monadic functions_.
- //! To compose them, we obviously can't use normal function composition,
- //! since the domains and codomains of `f` and `g` do not match properly.
- //! Instead, we'll need a new operator -- let's call it `monadic_compose`:
- //! @f[
- //! \mathtt{monadic\_compose} :
- //! (B \to F(C)) \times (A \to F(B)) \to (A \to F(C))
- //! @f]
- //!
- //! How could we go about implementing this function? Well, since we know
- //! `F` is an `Applicative`, the only functions we have are `transform`
- //! (from `Functor`), and `lift` and `ap` (from `Applicative`). Hence,
- //! the only thing we can do at this point while respecting the signatures
- //! of `f` and `g` is to set (for `x` of type `A`)
- //! @code
- //! monadic_compose(g, f)(x) = transform(f(x), g)
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //! Indeed, `f(x)` is of type `F(B)`, so we can map `g` (which takes `B`'s)
- //! on it. Doing so will leave us with a result of type `F(F(C))`, but what
- //! we wanted was a result of type `F(C)` to respect the signature of
- //! `monadic_compose`. If we had a joker of type @f$ F(F(C)) \to F(C) @f$,
- //! we could simply set
- //! @code
- //! monadic_compose(g, f)(x) = joker(transform(f(x), g))
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //! and we would be happy. It turns out that `flatten` is precisely this
- //! joker. Now, we'll want our joker to satisfy some properties to make
- //! sure this composition is associative, just like our normal composition
- //! was. These properties are slightly cumbersome to specify, so we won't
- //! do it here. Also, we'll need some kind of neutral element for the
- //! composition. This neutral element can't be the usual identity function,
- //! because it does not have the right type: our neutral element needs to
- //! be a function of type @f$ X \to F(X) @f$ but the identity function has
- //! type @f$ X \to X @f$. It is now the right time to observe that `lift`
- //! from `Applicative` has exactly the right signature, and so we'll take
- //! this for our neutral element.
- //!
- //! We are now ready to formulate the `Monad` laws using this composition
- //! operator. For a `Monad` `M` and functions @f$ f : A \to M(B) @f$,
- //! @f$ g : B \to M(C) @f$ and @f$ h : C \to M(D) @f$, the following
- //! must be satisfied:
- //! @code
- //! // associativity
- //! monadic_compose(h, monadic_compose(g, f)) == monadic_compose(monadic_compose(h, g), f)
- //!
- //! // right identity
- //! monadic_compose(f, lift<M(A)>) == f
- //!
- //! // left identity
- //! monadic_compose(lift<M(B)>, f) == f
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //! which is to say that `M` along with monadic composition is a Monoid
- //! where the neutral element is `lift`.
- //!
- //!
- //! Refined concepts
- //! ----------------
- //! 1. `Functor`
- //! 2. `Applicative` (free implementation of `ap`)\n
- //! When the minimal complete definition for `Monad` and `Functor` are
- //! both satisfied, it is possible to implement `ap` by setting
- //! @code
- //! ap(fs, xs) = chain(fs, [](auto f) {
- //! return transform(xs, f);
- //! })
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //!
- //! Concrete models
- //! ---------------
- //! `hana::lazy`, `hana::optional`, `hana::tuple`
- //!
- //!
- //! [1]: https://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuition-and-the-monad-tutorial-fallacy/
- //! [2]: https://wiki.haskell.org/Typeclassopedia#Monad
- template <typename M>
- struct Monad;
- BOOST_HANA_NAMESPACE_END
- #endif // !BOOST_HANA_FWD_CONCEPT_MONAD_HPP
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