Lesson plan
Paramorphism
In formal methods of computer science, a paramorphism (from Greek παρά, meaning "close together") is an extension of the concept of catamorphism first introduced by Lambert Meertens to deal with a form which “eats its argument and keeps it too”, as exemplified by the factorial function. Its categorical dual is the apomorphism. It is a more convenient version of catamorphism in that it gives the combining step function immediate access not only to the result value recursively computed from each recursive subobject, but the original subobject itself as well. Example Haskell implementation, for lists: cata :: (a -> b -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b para :: (a -> ([a], b) -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b ana :: (b -> (a, b)) -> b -> [a] apo :: (b -> (a, Either [a] b)) -> b -> [a] cata f b (a:as) = f a (cata f b as) cata _ b [] = b para f b (a:as) = f a (as, para f b as) para _ b [] = b ana u b = case u b of (a, b') -> a : ana u b' apo u b = case u b of (a, Right b') -> a : apo u b' (a, Left as) -> a : as
Article summary
In formal methods of computer science, a paramorphism (from Greek παρά, meaning "close together") is an extension of the concept of catamorphism first introduced by Lambert Meertens to deal with a form which “eats its argument and keeps it too”, as exemplified by the factorial function. Its categorical dual is the apomorphism. It is a more convenient version of catamorphism in that it gives the combining step function immediate access not only to the result value recursively computed from each recursive subobject, but the original subobject itself as well. Example Haskell implementation, for lists: cata :: (a -> b -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b para :: (a -> ([a], b) -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b ana :: (b -> (a, b)) -> b -> [a] apo :: (b -> (a, Either [a] b)) -> b -> [a] cata f b (a:as) = f a (cata f b as) cata _ b [] = b para f b (a:as) = f a (as, para f b as) para _ b [] = b ana u b = case u b of (a, b') -> a : ana u b' apo u b = case u b of (a, Right b') -> a : apo u b' (a, Left as) -> a : as
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.