[Haskell-cafe] What is the point of many and some functions in Control.Applicative (for Alternative?)

[Thomas Hartman]

When I load up Control.Applicative in ghci and try, eg

many [1,2] or many (Just 1) or some [1,2] or some (Just 1)

this never returns.

What are the practical uses of these combinators, or for using the
Alternative class in general?