Do notation is jokingly called a programmable semicolon. True, it is often used to model imperative computations with it, so that is the association people have with it. Also people come mostly from imperative backgrounds and look, we can bind something to a value. Finally something I get! And that is fine, let them play around with it like that.
But if they look closer, they find out it is not really imperative. Why is there a difference between let and bind? Why can't I reassign values. And they start to use more exotic and also more interesting monads and boom the imperative feel goes away.
For example with the interesting LogicT[1] monad. Or what about the probability monad[2]? Or the continuation monad[3]? Or the reverse state monad[4]? How imperative are those really? It really depends how you use it. And I think it adds more to the magic, that you think it is just imperative code at first, because suddenly you can create code that behave very different under various monads that represent computation models. I think that is a cool thing about this confusion.
I understand that if you are a professional that needs to get work done, it can be annoying.
But if they look closer, they find out it is not really imperative. Why is there a difference between let and bind? Why can't I reassign values. And they start to use more exotic and also more interesting monads and boom the imperative feel goes away.
For example with the interesting LogicT[1] monad. Or what about the probability monad[2]? Or the continuation monad[3]? Or the reverse state monad[4]? How imperative are those really? It really depends how you use it. And I think it adds more to the magic, that you think it is just imperative code at first, because suddenly you can create code that behave very different under various monads that represent computation models. I think that is a cool thing about this confusion.
I understand that if you are a professional that needs to get work done, it can be annoying.
[1]https://hackage.haskell.org/package/logict [2]https://hackage.haskell.org/package/probability [3]https://hackage.haskell.org/package/mtl-2.2.2/docs/Control-M... [4]https://lukepalmer.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/mindfuck-the-rev...