[Haskell-cafe] Is Template Haskell a suitable macro language?

[Magnus Jonsson]

I have the same problem too when using Haskell. The more I try to enforce 
static guarantees the more I get lots of datatypes that are similar except 
for one or two constructors. The best way I have found to avoid this is to 
simply give up on some of the static guarantees and just use one datatype 
that contains all the constructors. Less static guarantees but also less 
needless type coaxing between 90% similar types. I haven't tried using 
macros.

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007, Joel Reymont wrote:

> I'm finding myself dealing with several large abstract syntax trees that are 
> very similar in nature. The constructor names would be the same or one type 
> may be a small extension of another.
>
> This is something that I wouldn't worry about with Lisp, for example, as I 
> would create a bunch of macros for creating syntax trees and reuse them all 
> over. I cannot do this in Haskell, though, as my "macros" are functions and 
> so I must repeat them for every AST since they return different types.
>
> I'm wondering if Template Haskell is a suitable replacement for Lisp macros.
>
> What is the consensus?
>
> 	Thanks, Joel
>
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> http://wagerlabs.com/
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