[Haskell-cafe] Design of protocol implementation?

[Christopher Done]

Right, what you have there is the simplest implementation and it seems
pretty common to me, for RPC-style services.

The only adjustments I like to make is to ensure input and return are
matched up.

Another way I've taken to is e.g. in Fay:

data Returns a = Returns
data Command =
  Procedure Int Char (Returns (Text,Maybe [Int]))

call :: (Returns a -> Command) -> IO a
call = …

produce :: Returns a -> IO a -> IO a
produce _ m = m

handle :: Command -> IO ()
handle (Procedure i c r) = produce r (procedure i c)

Another way I've taken was in e.g. ghc-server was to use a GADT:

    data Command a where
      LoadTarget :: Text -> Command (Producer Msg (SuccessFlag,Integer))
      Eval :: Text -> Command (Duplex Text Text EvalResult)
      Ping :: Integer -> Command (Returns Integer)
      TypeOf :: Text -> Command (Returns Text)
      LocationAt :: FilePath -> Text -> Int -> Int -> Int -> Int ->
Command (Returns SrcSpan)
      TypeAt :: FilePath -> Text -> Int -> Int -> Int -> Int ->
Command (Returns Text)
      UsesAt :: FilePath -> Text -> Int -> Int -> Int -> Int ->
Command (Returns Text)
      KindOf :: Text -> Command (Returns Text)
      InfoOf :: Text -> Command (Returns [Text])
      Set :: Text -> Command (Returns ())
      PackageConf :: FilePath -> Command (Returns ())
      SetCurrentDir :: FilePath -> Command (Returns ())

My type looks like a pipe or a conduit, but was more involved because
it was a duplex:

    type Duplex i o r = DuplexT IO i o r
    type Producer o r = Duplex () o r
    type Returns r = Duplex () () r
    type Unit = Duplex () () ()

But in essence the commands could return a result and/or accept
incoming input and produce output. E.g. evaluating a line of Haskell
lets you send/receive stdin/stdout and eventually return a
success/fail result.

I wrote a few lines of TH to do the dispatching code.

I've also seen an approach using type-level literals to put strings in
the types to use dispatching, but I can't remember who wrote it.

You can also use e.g. closed type families to express a finite state
machine that this-must-happen-before-that-state etc. if you really
want to ensure every state change is valid.

It's hard to find links to any of these things I've seen, not sure
what the keywords are.