[Haskell-cafe] lambda case (was Re: A big hurray for lambda-case (and all the other good stuff))

[Tom Ellis]

On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 05:49:53PM +0000, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
> Ben Franksen <ben.franksen at online.de> writes:
> > just wanted to drop by to say how much I like the new lambda case extension. 
> > I use it all the time and I just *love* how it relieves me from conjuring up 
> > dummy variables, which makes teh code not only esier to write but also to 
> > read.
> 
> > [...] should *definitely* go into Haskell'13.
[...]
> To me it seems obvious that if we are going to do this [...] we should do
> it simply by making the "case exp" part of a case expression optional.
> 
>    of {alts...}
> 
> and we would then describe
> 
>    case e of {...}
> 
> as syntactic sugar for
> 
>    (of {...}) (e)

My very belated and unsolicited layman's reply is that I am a strong
supporter of Jon's position.  His suggestion is parsimonious and natural. 
Without wishing to start the discussion again, I disagree that it is
bikeshedding.  One lesson I learned from Haskell is that syntax is much more
important than I previously realised.

Tom