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Re:Functionally Solving Problems With Haskell by coolsunglasses on Saturday April 05, 2014 @01:56PM (#7537835)
When I teach Haskell, I like to take a diversion from Applicatives to Monoids before going to Monads.

Understanding join is pretty valuable for understanding Monads too.

Re:Functionally Solving Problems With Haskell by tel on Saturday April 05, 2014 @04:26PM (#7538319)
You can do Applicative -> Alternative and study Alternatives as Monoids of Applicatives and then lay on the difference between (<*>) and (<>) as producing a seminearring!

And then go study Monads because why not. They're kind of cool, too.

Re:Functionally Solving Problems With Haskell by coolsunglasses on Saturday April 05, 2014 @05:03PM (#7538443)
Actually you just reminded me that I need to explain sums and products in terms of a seminearring.