[Haskell-cafe] hoisting as well as lifting and returning

[Matthew Pocock]

Hi Yitz,

I was thinking along the lines of a class linking the monad transformer with 
the base monad:

class (MonadTrans mt, Monad b) => MonadTForm mt b | mt -> b
    where 
  hoist :: (Monad m) => b a -> mt m a

This is to restrict it directly between the base monad and the transformed 
version. If you wish to 'adapt' any other pair of monads, then I think that's 
another operation, just as lift is a different operation to hoist.

Matthew

On Sunday 23 March 2008, Yitzchak Gale wrote:
> You are correct. This is a fundamental operation. It exists
> for just about every monad, but in a haphazard and
> inconsistent way. In my opinion, its type needs to be
> more polymorphic in a slightly different direction than what
> you are suggesting.

...

> What I do sorely feel the need for is a "hoist" for each pair
> of base/transformer monads: i.e., polymorphic monad
> constructors.
>
> So, for example, if we had
>
> mkState :: (st -> (a, st)) -> m a
>
> as a member of the MonadState st m class,
> then it would be so much easier to write functions
>
> f :: MonadState st m => ...
>
> that could be used without having to refactor it every time
> the monad stack changes. In general, each monad
> Foo would have a MonadFoo class (even the monads
> that don't have one yet) containing (at least) a mkFoo
> method that lifts the "underlying structure" polymorphically
> either to Foo or to FooT.

...

> Regards,
> Yitz