[Haskell-cafe] Why does HXT use Arrows?

[Stephen Tetley]

Hello Gregory

I've never used HXT, but looking at the source there are many
functions with types like this one:

getElemNodeSet		:: ArrowXml a => a XmlTree XmlTree -> a XmlTree XmlNodeSet

They are functions where the arrow is 'a XmlTree _something_. The
input to the arrow is an XmlTree and the ouput is variable. If all the
functions were like this they could be replaced by a monad. However
there are quite a few like this:

mkCmt		:: a String XmlTree
mkElement		:: QName -> a n XmlTree -> a n XmlTree -> a n XmlTree

Here the input type to the arrow computation varies - this is the key
- monads can produce output in many ways (wrapping it in a Maybe,
tupling it with state, many results - list monad) but they can only
take input as function parameters. Arrows can consume input in
different ways...

>From John Hughes's AFP lecture notes:

"But whereas monadic computations are parameterised over the type of
their output, but not their input, arrow computations are
parameterised over both. The way monadic programs take input cannot be
varied by varying the monad, but arrow programs, in contrast, can take
their input in many different ways depending on the particular arrow
used."

http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~rjmh/afp-arrows.pdf

Best wishes

Stephen


2009/12/24 Gregory Crosswhite <gcross at phys.washington.edu>:
> Something I have been wondering for a while is:  Why is HXT built on arrows, rather than monads?  I understand that arrows are a generalization of monads, but they also add extra complexity that is often unnecessary.  Furthermore, as I understand it they only give you additional power when your arrow cannot implement ArrowApply, since otherwise your arrow is equivalent to a monad anyway, and it looks like the result of parsing an XML document gets you an arrow which implements ArrowApply.
>
> Is there some circumstance I am missing where the fact that HXT uses arrows rather than monads lets one do something that one couldn't have done with monads?
>
> Cheers,
> Greg
>
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