[Haskell-cafe] (n+k) patterns

[Sittampalam, Ganesh]

Richard O'Keefe wrote:
 
> The thing is that it really seems bizarre to see this one feature
> singled out for non-implementation. 
> 
> If I can do the equivalent of n+k patterns by programming in the
> *type system*, why *not* in a pattern? 

Do you mean by something like the following?

data Z = Z
data S n = S n

type Plus2 a = S (S a)

minus2 :: Plus2 a -> a
minus2 _ = undefined -- or actually use the values, or whatever

If so, I'd say that n+k patterns go well beyond this kind of "pattern
aliases", particularly since they operate on arbitrary Nums, not just an
inductively defined natural number type.

Cheers,

Ganesh

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