Multi-phase Computation as an Applicative Functor

Explore a conference talk that delves into the intriguing relationship between data structuring and program structuring, focusing on multi-phase computation as an applicative functor. Examine Tony Hoare's 50-year-old observation about the analogies between data and program structuring methods. Investigate the tension between static and dynamic program structures, using breadth-first tree traversal as an example. Learn about a technique for resolving this tension by specifying static structure as a multi-phase computation with potentially different dynamic execution. Discover how the appropriate abstraction for this approach is an applicative functor, similar to but distinct from the free applicative. Gain insights from the collaborative work of Jeremy Gibbons, Oisin Kidney, Tom Schrijvers, and Nicolas Wu in this thought-provoking presentation from the TyDe'23 conference.