[Haskell-cafe] foild function for expressions

[Stefan O'Rear]

On Mon, Dec 03, 2007 at 09:27:45PM -0600, Derek Elkins wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 19:13 -0800, Stefan O'Rear wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 03, 2007 at 09:18:18AM -0800, Carlo Vivari wrote:
> > > 
> > > Hi! I'm a begginer in haskell and I have a problem with an exercise, I expect
> > > someone could help me:
> > > 
> > > In one hand I have a declaration of an algebra data, like this:
> > > 
> > > data AlgExp a = AlgExp
> > > { litI  :: Int -> a,
> > >    litB :: Bool -> a,
> > >    add :: a -> a -> a,
> > >    and :: a -> a -> a,
> > >    ifte :: a -> a -> a -> a}
> > > 
> > > (being ifte an 'ifthenelse' expresion...)
> > > 
> > > What I want to do is to write a fold function for expressions, something
> > > like this:
> > > 
> > > foldExp :: AlgExp a -> Exp -> a
> > > foldExp alg (LitI i) = litI alg i
> > > foldExp alg (LitB i) = litB alg i
> > > foldExp alg (add exp1 exp2) = ¿¿¿???
> > > foldExp alg (and exp1 exp2) = ¿¿¿???
> > > foldExp alg (ifte exp1 exp2 exp3) = ¿¿¿???
> > > 
> > > ..ETC
> > > 
> > > 
> > > the fact is that I have no idea of what to do with the other expresions
> > > (add, and, and ifte)... I really don' t understand how to do this... It's
> > > clear that a fold function should colapse in one valour, but how can I
> > > espress it in the terms of the exercise?
> > > 
> > > For further information about the problem after this,  it's suposed that I
> > > have to rewrite some functions for expresions but in terms of foldexp (the
> > > one I should write before)
> > 
> > The problem is that AlgExp defines an arbitrary algebra, but in order to
> > fold you need a universal algebra.  So it makes the most sense to add
> > foldExp to the reccord.
> 
> This is an unusually poor post for you.  Presuming you mean "initial" or
> "free" or "term" for "universal" then it does (presumably) have it with
> Exp.  Assuming Exp is the expected thing (an AST) it is (combined with
> the constructors) the initial algebra.  foldExp should quite definitely
> be the type it is and not be part of the record and the its
> implementation is so far correct (modulo syntactical errors that are
> potentially indicative of a deeper confusion).

Oh right, I misread the foldExp sketch.  I thought he was trying to go
*from* a member of his algebra *to* Exp.  Sorry.

Stefan
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