Utility
Arrows have several benefits, mostly stemming from their ability to make program logic explicit yet concise. Besides avoiding side effects, purely functional programming creates more opportunities for static code analysis. This in turn can theoretically lead to better compiler optimizations, easier debugging, and features like syntax sugar.
Although no program strictly requires arrows, they generalize away much of the dense function passing that pure, declarative code would otherwise require. They can also encourage code reuse by giving common linkages between program steps their own class definitions. The ability to apply to types generically also contributes to reusability and keeps interfaces simple.
Arrows do have some disadvantages, including the initial effort of defining an arrow that satisfies the arrow laws. Because monads are usually easier to implement, and the extra features of arrows may be unnecessary, it is often preferable to use a monad. Another issue, which applies to many functional programming constructs, is efficiently compiling code with arrows into the imperative style used by computer instruction sets.
Read more about this topic: Arrow (computer Science)
Famous quotes containing the word utility:
“Moral sensibilities are nowadays at such cross-purposes that to one man a morality is proved by its utility, while to another its utility refutes it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)