That actually sounds like you encountered code that shouldn't have been or you had people using Scalaz (which has weird operators taken from Haskell, looking at you <*>.)
For those who don't understand: Scalaz is an additional layer of syntax and tricks on top of what is already there. It seems to have quite a lot of power!
implicit val option = new Traverse[Option] with MonadPlus[Option] {
def point[A](a: => A) = Some(a)
def bind[A, B](fa: Option[A])(f: A => Option[B]): Option[B] = fa flatMap f
override def map[A, B](fa: Option[A])(f: A => B): Option[B] = fa map f
def traverseImpl[F[_], A, B](fa: Option[A])(f: A => F[B])(implicit F: Applicative[F]) =
fa map (a => F.map(f(a))(Some(_): Option[B])) getOrElse F.point(None)
def empty[A]: Option[A] = None
def plus[A](a: Option[A], b: => Option[A]) = a orElse b
def foldR[A, B](fa: Option[A], z: B)(f: (A) => (=> B) => B): B = fa match {
case Some(a) => f(a)(z)
case None => z
}
}
That part is fine. The trouble with Scalaz is it adds a bunch of extra operators (that is, methods - the distinction doesn't exist in Scala) like |+|, \*> and >=>.