diff --git a/src/libraries/monads/composition.mli b/src/libraries/monads/composition.mli index a45665a64b249c4f10bb22b5a0ed1c213b1178dd..fa260d44db341cab45d0068146299e74527c6ad6 100644 --- a/src/libraries/monads/composition.mli +++ b/src/libraries/monads/composition.mli @@ -20,9 +20,9 @@ (* *) (**************************************************************************) -(** This module exposes two functors that, given a monad M called the - "interior monad" and a monad N called the "exterior monad", build - a monad of type ['a M.t N.t]. To be able to do so, one has to provide +(** This module exposes two functors that, given a monad T called the + "interior monad" and a monad S called the "exterior monad", build + a monad of type ['a T.t S.t]. To be able to do so, one has to provide a [swap] function that, simply put, swap the exterior monad out of the interior one. In other word, this function allows fixing "badly ordered" monads compositions, in the sens that they are @@ -40,10 +40,17 @@ | None -> State.return None | Some s -> State.map Option.return s ]} - Note here that trying to reverse the order of the Option and State monads makes the [swap] function way harder to write. Moreover, the resulting function does not actually satisfy the required axioms. + + Indeed, all [swap] functions will not result in a valid composed monad. + To produce such a monad, the given [swap] function must verify the + following equations: + 1. ∀t: 'a T.t, [swap (T.map S.return t) ≣ S.return t] + 2. ∀s: 'a S.t, [swap (T.return s) ≣ S.map T.return s] + 3. ∀x: 'a S.t S.t T.t, [swap (T.map S.flatten x) ≣ S.flatten (S.map swap (swap x))] + 4. ∀x: 'a S.t T.t T.t, [swap (T.flatten x) ≣ S.map T.flatten (swap (T.map swap x))] More details on this at the end of this file. @since Frama-C+dev *) @@ -72,9 +79,15 @@ module Make_with_product Monads composition is a notoriously difficult topic, and no general approach exists. The one provided in this module is, in theory, quite restrictive as the [swap] function, also called a distributive - law, has to satisfy four axioms to guarantee that a valid monad can - be built. Roughly speaking, those axioms enforce the idea that - the distributive law must preserve all structures in the two monads. + law, has to satisfy the four presented axioms to guarantee that a + valid monad can be built. Roughly speaking, those axioms enforce the + idea that the distributive law must preserve all structures in the + two monads. + + Distributive laws, their application to monads composition and weakenings + of their axioms are a broad topic with profound implications in category + theory. Even if none of this formal knowledge us required to use this + module, one can check the following references to satisfy their curiosity. @see Jon Beck paper "Distributive laws" for more details on this topic. @see Alexandre Goy thesis "On the compositionality of monads via weak diff --git a/src/libraries/monads/monad.mli b/src/libraries/monads/monad.mli index 222c759b42f127c57f9892d58ea416369752dacf..9d1ed937b9f5a809dff646b842fd81573a816268 100644 --- a/src/libraries/monads/monad.mli +++ b/src/libraries/monads/monad.mli @@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ to build them based on minimal definitions. Those tools are provided for advanced users that would like to define their own monads. Any user that only wants to use the monads provided by the kernel can - completly ignore them. *) + completly ignore them. + @since Frama-C+dev *)