What does the period / dot mean? <pre class="prettyprint"><code>forall a. Num a => a -> a -> a </code></pre> Is it merely a separator?

Yes, it's just a syntactic separator. It separates variable declarations from variable usages, just like the <code>-></code> in a lambda expression. It means "Here endeth the binders". I suppose the language designers went for <code>.</code> because it's 22 characters shorter.

forall notation: what does the period / dot mean?

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haskell

purescript

What does the period / dot mean?

forall a. Num a => a -> a -> a

Is it merely a separator?

272

asked Sep 09 '17 23:09

M. Walker

1 Answers

Yes, it's just a syntactic separator. It separates variable declarations from variable usages, just like the -> in a lambda expression. It means "Here endeth the binders". I suppose the language designers went for . because it's 22 characters shorter.