[Haskell-cafe] Applicative functors with branch/choice ?

[Twan van Laarhoven]

On 26/07/12 12:40, Евгений Пермяков wrote:
> class Applicative f => Actuative f where
>   -- | select computation conditionally . Side effects of only one two
> alternative take place
>   select      :: f (Either a b)  -- ^ selector
>                   -> f (a -> c) -- ^ first alternative
>                   -> f (b -> c) -- ^ second alternative
>                   -> f c

Can't you already define this function in terms of Applicative itself? I.e.

     select xs fs gs = sel <$> xs <*> fs <*> gs
       where
         sel (Left  a) f _ = f a
         sel (Right b) _ g = g b

I assume that your intent is that `select` behaves differently from the one I 
defined here. But you need to specify in what way.

Suppose it should work like if-then-else. Then you would perhaps have these laws:

     select (Left <$> x) f g = f <$> x
     select (fmap swapEither x) f g = select x g f

I think this is a useful class to have, and I would support adding something 
like it to the standard library. Perhaps the arguments should be swapped to the 
same order as either, to give

     class Functor f => Selective f where
         eitherF :: f (a -> c) -> f (b -> c) -> f (Either a b) -> f c

The laws would then be:

     eitherF f g . fmap swapEither = eitherF g f
     eitherF f g . fmap Left = f
     eitherF f g . fmap Right = g  -- follows from the other two laws

every Monad is an instance via

     defaultEitherF ls rs xs = either ls rs =<< xs


Twan