[Haskell-cafe] ANNOUNCE: arrow-list. List arrows for Haskell.

[Sebastian Fischer]

to answer my own question:

On Nov 7, 2010, at 8:33 PM, Sebastian Fischer wrote:

> Can you, for example, define a `perm` arrow that yields every  
> permutation of it's input? Monadic implementations look like they  
> need `>>=` but there may be another way..

A `perm` arrow can be defined in the "usual" way using the list-arrow  
package:

     {-# LANGUAGE TypeOperators #-}

     import Control.Arrow
     import Control.Arrow.ArrowList

     perm :: (ArrowList (~>), ArrowPlus (~>)) => [a] ~> [a]
     perm = isA null <+> (uncons >>> second perm >>> insert)

     insert :: (ArrowList (~>), ArrowPlus (~>)) => (a,[a]) ~> [a]
     insert = cons <+> (second uncons >>> rearrange >>> second insert  
 >>> cons)
      where rearrange = assocL >>> first swap >>> assocR

It may be possible to do this with `ArrowChoice` only, that is,  
without resorting to the operations of `ArrowList`, but they looked  
simpler.

In order to support the above, we need a bunch of auxiliary arrows.  
First, list con- and destructors:

     cons :: Arrow (~>) => (a,[a]) ~> [a]
     cons = arr (uncurry (:))

     uncons :: ArrowList (~>) => [a] ~> (a,[a])
     uncons = isA (not . null) >>> arr (\ (x:xs) -> (x,xs))

Second (and more annoyingly), "reordering" arrows:

     swap :: Arrow (~>) => (a,b) ~> (b,a)
     swap = arr (\ (x,y) -> (y,x))

     assocL :: Arrow (~>) => (a,(b,c)) ~> ((a,b),c)
     assocL = arr (\ (x,(y,z)) -> ((x,y),z))

     assocR :: Arrow (~>) => ((a,b),c) ~> (a,(b,c))
     assocR = arr (\ ((x,y),z) -> (x,(y,z)))

This is my first program with arrows so it might be unnecessarily  
complicated. Is there a more elegant way?

I wonder how badly my use of `arr` influences how the program can be  
optimized.  I hope it's still better than just using

     perm = arrL perms
      where perms :: [a] -> [[a]]
            perms = ...

;o)

Sebastian