[Haskell-cafe] MTL vs Free-monads, what are your experiences

[Will Yager]

It seems that there are several advantages to the Purescript approach. 

For example, this 

catchException :: forall a e . (Error -> Eff e a) -> Eff (err :: EXCEPTION | e) a -> Eff e a
 would be unwieldy to express using typeclasses, requiring at least three constraints. I also find this style easier to read than constraints, as it requires no mental substitution. E.g. if I see 
(Foo m, Bar m, Bar n) => Baz -> <stuff ...> -> m a
When I get to the end of the type, I have to go back to the beginning to figure out what m is. I can't read left-to-right. This happens a lot with constraint-based monad composition. 
Another advantage is that the Purescipt example uses a concrete type, which is often easier to reason about than "ad-hoc" typeclass abstractions like MonadRandom. However, it looks like you still get the flexibility of ad-hoc typeclasses, because you get to pick any function that discharges the effect type in the given effect monad. 
Like I said, I have not used it, but these are what I've noticed from topical observation. 
Apologies for the formatting; copying that code example appears to have confused the iOS mail app. 
Cheers,
Will


> On Oct 19, 2016, at 12:26, Christopher Allen <cma at bitemyapp.com> wrote:
> 
> It's not really more direct. It's an unordered collection of effects
> you can use. IME it's a less efficient mtl-style, but YMMV.
> 
> Taking an example from a PureScript tutorial:
> 
> func :: Eff (console :: CONSOLE, random :: RANDOM) Unit
> 
> Can just as easily be:
> 
> func :: (MonadConsole m, MonadGimmeRandom m) => m ()
> 
> (mangled name so it doesn't overlap with a real class)
> 
> There are other differences, but they haven't amounted to much for me yet.
> 
> Kmett's Quine has a good example of some homespun mtl-style:
> https://github.com/ekmett/quine
> 
>> On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 12:17 PM, Will Yager <will.yager at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Can anyone comment on the use of Purescript-style effect monads as compared to MTL and Free? While I have not used them in practice, they seem to express the "intent" of monad composition a bit more directly than the approaches we use in Haskell.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Will
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Chris Allen
> Currently working on http://haskellbook.com
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