[jerf]

Ironically, I added that just as I was linking it here, despite the date on that post.

In addition to tel's discussion, what I was really trying to get at is that monads aren't "about" IO effects in particular, they're not about "impurity". In this case the whole thing is pure.

Defining effects at a deep programming language research level can bring a different understanding, where all monads are about effects, but "effects" has a different meaning that most people understand.

I'll ponder how to clarify that better.

[mattfenwick]

My suggestion is to use "side effects" -- it seems to me that most people have an intuitive understanding of that term.

... but I may be wrong about that.