[Haskell-beginners] data at different stages

[Brent Yorgey]

You may be interested in the approach outlined in Wouter Swierstra's
paper "Data Types a la Carte".  There is also the 'syntactic' package
which is based on Wouter's ideas.  This is exactly the problem it was
trying to solve -- having several slightly different versions of a
data type, *without* having to do a lot of repetition (as in your
separate data types approach) or throwing away the type system's help
(as in your approach with Maybes).

In any event it's a fun paper to read.

-Brent

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 08:59:00PM -0800, Dennis Raddle wrote:
> I'm working on an application for reading Music XML and manipulating it,
> including translating it into midi events.
> 
> Storing music data can take place from different perspectives or
> requirements.
> 
> - a literal translation of the MusicXML would store each note and marking
> on the page
> 
> - another representation might relate to higher concepts: for instance,
> instead of storing individual dynamic markings and indications for swelling
> and ebbing of dynamics, it might create a single data structure which is a
> dynamic profile over time. Instead of storing all the markings over the
> notes individually (staccato, accents, slur marks, etc.) it might examine
> all the markings at once and compute concrete performance instructions note
> by note.
> 
> There are about four distinct stages in processing the music, in which
> things become either more abstract (grouping together details into higher
> concepts) or more concrete (such as more literal performance instructions).
> 
> One of the stages, by the way, tries to represent notes in a way such that
> they can be moved in time or "sliced out" without disturbing the continuity
> of the performance instructions.
> 
> At first I created several different data structures, one for each useful
> stage. Many of the fields are copied literally. There are similar fields
> which need distinct names. This is starting to seem like a confusing mess.
> 
> Another approach is to create one data structure which contains some
> "Maybe" type fields. When the processing reaches a certain stage, they are
> set to "Just <value>" if applicable to that stage. Otherwise they are set
> to Nothing.
> 
> I didn't want to do this at first because it's too much like a sloppy
> script language. The type system of the compiler would no longer assist me
> in verifying the validity of the data at each stage.
> 
> But it's turning into a mess- and the key reason it's a mess, I think, is
> that I DON'T have a clear model of the stages. It keeps changing as I
> expand the requirements of my program. What seemed like a useful
> representation last month needs to be changed today.
> 
> Any ideas welcome.
> 
> Dennis

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