[FRIAM] Mathematical Search and Regular Expressions

[Marcus G. Daniels]

Eric Smith wrote:
> Returning from music to the question of searching for mathematical
> expressions.  This may be foolish, but what about using a functional
> programming language, such as Haskell, as a "standard format" for
> searchable math expressions?  
Some of the popular functional programming languages like ML (or OCaml) 
take the perspective that programmers may find it easier to think in 
terms of loops and side effects than recursion and monads, but even if 
that is true, programmers are not the concern.   Mathematica is also one 
of these languages that can be used in a functional way but also provide 
imperative programming features.   It might be tempting just to use 
Mathematica, but of course it's a proprietary thing, which might not be 
ideal for some environments or audiences.  In contrast, Haskell is 
purely functional and a new set of conventions built on it would limit 
the risk that junk (that was hard to search or grok) could sneak in and 
complicate things..