[Haskell-cafe] MonadPlus and Alternative folds

[Tom Ellis]

On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 01:25:00AM -0400, David Feuer wrote:
> It kind of seems like there should be fold-like things to match some and
> many.
> 
> foldrAlt :: Alternative f => (a -> b -> b) -> b -> f a -> f b
> foldrAlt c n m = foldr1Alt c n m <|> pure n
> 
> foldr1Alt :: Alternative f => (a -> b -> b) -> b -> f a -> f b
> foldr1Alt c n m = c <$> m <*> foldrAlt c n m
[...]

An Alternative allows list-like behaviour when it comes to *construction*,
but offers no operation analogous to pattern-matching and therefore doesn't
allow you to look inside it or do any sort of *destruction*.

I tried foldrAlt and it looped forever, as I expected.  I also expect the
others to loop forever.

Tom