> <- is assignment or pattern matching, probably the latter. Neither really, though I guess it's kind of like assignment, but it's usually read "draw from". Do

> <- is assignment or pattern matching, probably the latter. Neither really, though I guess it's kind of like assignment, but it's usually read "draw from". Do-notation is sugar for working with monadic values, which are kind of like containers that hold a value. It's a bit hard to explain, but basically it means to pull the enclosed value out of the container on the right hand side and reference it according to the name on the left hand side. > the $ after guard is... what? $ is function application. It basically means to evaluate the right hand side before passing the result to the left hand side. It's used to avoid parentheses, `f $ g h` is like `f (g h)` (Haskell doesn't use parenthesis for function evaluation). Haskell syntax is lovely when you're used to it, but it's also subtle. IMO it can be easy for people who aren't familiar to get the general idea of what's going on but the specifics are often not what you think.