monad

1) A type of functor used in category theory in mathematics. Category theory describes patterns in mathematical functions.

2) A kind of constructor used in functional programming to structure programs that include sequenced operations. The primary use of monads in this context is to express input/output (I/O) operations without using language features. In general, however, monads are useful whenever a programmer wants to perform a purely functional computation separate from a related computation performed apart from it.

3) The original code name for Microsoft's PowerShell, an object-oriented programming language and interactive command line shell for Microsoft Windows with built-in, flexible scripting abilities.

4) A symbol used by ancient Greek philosophers, including Plato, Pythagoras and Aristotle, to describe God or the totality of all beings. Metaphysical and theological theory describes "monism" as the concept of "one essence."

Read more about monad: - For more about monad use in functional programming, see Wikipedia's entry. - Learn more about monads and monadic programming in Haskell at haskell.org. - For more about monad use in category theory, see Wikipedia's entry. - Yale.edu hosts a list of books about monads, functional programming and Haskell. - WhatIs.com's blog features a number of entertaining videos from the Catsters that explain monads.

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