[Haskell-cafe] Splitting off many/some from Alternative

[Yitzchak Gale]

Gregory Crosswhite wrote:
>> could we split the some/many methods out from Alternative?  They simply
>> don't make sense except in a subset of possible Alternatives --- in most
>> cases they just result in an infinite loop...

That is a very good point. I would be in favor of such a
change, even though it would be somewhat disruptive.

>> I suspect that there are not more than a couple of packages
>> out there that make active use of the some/many instances of Alternative;
>> it is really only parser packages that need some/many, and users most
>> likely use the versions included with the packages themselves rather than
>> the Alternative version.

No, I have *tons* of modules that contain parser code and import those.
I suspect many others do too. But I am prepared to bite the bullet;
this is a real wart.

>> It thus makes sense for there to be some subclass of Alternative
>> called something like "Consumptive" that contains these methods.

Brandon Allbery wrote:
> "Parsive"

I like that better.

But let's not get stuck on bikeshedding. I'm in favor
no matter what name is chosen.

Thanks,
Yitz