Comments on: The Maybe Operator http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/ Long form thoughts from a Software Engineer Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:42:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mark Mzyk http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/comment-page-1/#comment-10236 Mark Mzyk Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:17:04 +0000 http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/#comment-10236 @Jimage That's an interesting thought, the comparison to the brain. I hadn't considered it, but it brings up the point that the maybe operator and maybe monad likely have a place in artificial intelligence programming. It's possible use around incomplete data is also interesting. However, I don't know about situations where that is often the case, that a program has incomplete data. Programs today are written so that they have complete data or they fail. If with incomplete data today's programs generally fail, does that mean having a maybe operator would allow a different path through the code instead of issuing an exception or throwing an error? A third path to deal with the uncertainty instead of just erroring out. It's worth pondering. @Jimage

That’s an interesting thought, the comparison to the brain. I hadn’t considered it, but it brings up the point that the maybe operator and maybe monad likely have a place in artificial intelligence programming.

It’s possible use around incomplete data is also interesting. However, I don’t know about situations where that is often the case, that a program has incomplete data. Programs today are written so that they have complete data or they fail. If with incomplete data today’s programs generally fail, does that mean having a maybe operator would allow a different path through the code instead of issuing an exception or throwing an error? A third path to deal with the uncertainty instead of just erroring out.

It’s worth pondering.

]]> By: Jimage http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/comment-page-1/#comment-10231 Jimage Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:32:07 +0000 http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/#comment-10231 This came up in discussion during several IRC conversations recently, and I dubbed it the 'may or may not' operator. It has great comedic value, but surely there must be some practical applications. We spoke of a language in which assumptions play a major role. Someone observed that the brain relies heavily on assumptions, and it's about the most powerful computer that exists. Perhaps the maybe operator could play a valuable role in dealing with incomplete data, in a similar way that the brain fills in the gaps in our awareness. Also, it seems to have a certain quantum property about it... something about calculating unobserved data without collapsing it. Such reasoning becomes pseudo-science very quickly without more in-depth knowledge on the subject, but it's worth considering. Maybe. This came up in discussion during several IRC conversations recently, and I dubbed it the ‘may or may not’ operator. It has great comedic value, but surely there must be some practical applications. We spoke of a language in which assumptions play a major role. Someone observed that the brain relies heavily on assumptions, and it’s about the most powerful computer that exists. Perhaps the maybe operator could play a valuable role in dealing with incomplete data, in a similar way that the brain fills in the gaps in our awareness. Also, it seems to have a certain quantum property about it… something about calculating unobserved data without collapsing it. Such reasoning becomes pseudo-science very quickly without more in-depth knowledge on the subject, but it’s worth considering. Maybe.

]]> By: The Maybe Monad (In Ruby) | Programmer’s Paradox http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/comment-page-1/#comment-98 The Maybe Monad (In Ruby) | Programmer’s Paradox Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:27:10 +0000 http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/#comment-98 [...] the tail end of last year I wrote a piece in which I waxed about a possible maybe operator. I haven’t looked into implementing anything like it because my time is limited and I [...] [...] the tail end of last year I wrote a piece in which I waxed about a possible maybe operator. I haven’t looked into implementing anything like it because my time is limited and I [...]

]]> By: Kevin Smith http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Kevin Smith Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:30:53 +0000 http://www.programmersparadox.com/2007/12/26/the-maybe-operator/#comment-11 My gut tells me that implementing maybe has farther reaching implications than just ternary logic. A maybe operator seems to hint at things like promises and forced evaluation. I guess it's because maybe implies that the value could become "fixed" later depending on conditions and so, you might want to re-evaluate it later. Kinda like the magic eight ball's answer of "Maybe, try again later". Haskell has a Maybe monad which might be similar to what you're describing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monads_in_functional_programming My gut tells me that implementing maybe has farther reaching implications than just ternary logic. A maybe operator seems to hint at things like promises and forced evaluation. I guess it’s because maybe implies that the value could become “fixed” later depending on conditions and so, you might want to re-evaluate it later. Kinda like the magic eight ball’s answer of “Maybe, try again later”.

Haskell has a Maybe monad which might be similar to what you’re describing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monads_in_functional_programming

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