[Haskell-cafe] use of modules to save typing

[Stephen Tetley]

Hello all

For manipulating records I use an arity family of so-called "Starling"
combinators - they seem a pleasant if low-powered solution. To me, the
infix combinator style of Data-Accessor quickly ends up looking like a
particulary angry exchange between Snoopy and Woodstock[1].



> star  :: (a -> r -> ans) -> (r -> a) -> r -> ans
> star2 :: (a -> b -> r -> ans) -> (r -> a) -> (r -> b) -> r -> ans
> star3 :: (a -> b -> c -> r -> ans) -> (r -> a) -> (r -> b) -> (r -> c) -> r -> ans
> star4 :: (a -> b -> c -> d -> r -> ans)
>	-> (r -> a) -> (r -> b) -> (r -> c) -> (r -> d) -> r -> ans
> star5 :: (a -> b -> c -> d -> e -> r -> ans)
>       -> (r -> a) -> (r -> b) -> (r -> c) -> (r -> d) -> (r -> e) -> r -> ans


> star  f fa x          = f (fa x) x
> star2 f fa fb x       = f (fa x) (fb x) x
> star3 f fa fb fc x    = f (fa x) (fb x) (fc x) x
> star3 f fa fb fc fd x = f (fa x) (fb x) (fc x) (fd x) x
....

An example - tracking the source position in a parser:

> data SrcPos = SrcPos {
>                  src_line       :: Int,
>                  src_column     :: Int,
>                  src_tab_size   :: Int
>                }


> incrCol :: SrcPos -> SrcPos
> incrCol = star (\i s -> s { src_column=i+1 }) src_column

> incrTab :: SrcPos -> SrcPos
> incrTab = star2 (\i t s -> s { src_column=i+t }) src_column src_tab_size


> incrLine :: SrcPos -> SrcPos
> incrLine = star (\i s -> s { src_line =i+1, src_column=1 }) src_line

[1] For those missing the cultural reference, in the UK and USA
cartoon characters usually have swearing censored with sequences of
non-alpha characters, e.g. "What the @#*&! ?"