[Haskell] overuse of maybe and [] in prelude and libs

[S. Alexander Jacobson]

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:
> You've become a very sophisticated Haskell programmer!

Thank you, but I think it may only seem that way.
I'll post a complete program up somewhere and they
we'll see where I really stand.  Among other
things, I don't yet have a feel for idiom/style
(e.g. when do you define classes rather than
modules, when do use in default methods, in what
order do you define types classes functions etc
for maximum readability).

> We did at one stage do something like this, by making list comprehensions=
 into monad comprehensions.  So
> =09[ x*x | x <- xs, pred x]
> meant the same as
> =09do { x <- xs; if pred x then mzero else return (); return (x*x)}
>
> But in the next iteration of the language we undid the change, a controve=
rsial decision that some still regret.  Because na=EFve users were getting =
too many perplexing error messages about monads and functors when they thou=
ght they were just manipulating lists.

I guess I'm in the regret group.  Nothing stops
beginners from importing BeginnerUtils and using
list typed functions with names like concatList
(or implementors from writing better error message
copy).  But, ok...

> Haskell is pretty good about letting you install a different Prelude, so =
you could try it yourself.

Hmm.  That's interesting!  How does this work?

* Can this change propogate through the libs so
  that e.g. lookupFM also returns a Monad rather
  than Maybe without manual modification of all
  the libs? (Note: I am actually using lookupFM in
  my code, I used lookup in my example to
  simplify)

* If I modify Monad in my prelude to have Ord,
  will do-notation work in my new monad class?
  Will the IO monad work? Can I make () an
  instance of Ord or EQ?

* Can different modules use different Preludes?
  It seems like making a module dependent on a
  different Prelude means potential
  incompatibilities with third party modules.
  e.g. if I want to use HaXML and it
  hypothetically changes to define one
  Prelude and HaskellDB which
  hypothetically changes to define another
  Prelude, is there an easy way to import ONLY the
  functions defined in those modules and not all
  the functions defined in their respective
  Preludes.

* Is there a formal definition of what in the
  Prelude is actually core to Haskell and what is
  really just common utilities located their?
  Alternatively, does an "advanced prelude"
  already exist that does what I probably want but
  don't know yet?

-Alex-

_________________________________________________________________
S. Alexander Jacobson                  mailto:me at alexjacobson.com
tel:917-770-6565                       http://alexjacobson.com


> Simon
>
> | -----Original Message-----
> | From: haskell-bounces at haskell.org [mailto:haskell-bounces at haskell.org] =
On Behalf Of S. Alexander
> | Jacobson
> | Sent: 08 April 2004 04:42
> | To: Haskell Mailing List
> | Subject: [Haskell] overuse of maybe and [] in prelude and libs
> |
> | It feels like the Prelude insists on using [] and
> | Maybe too much.  I keep writing things like this:
> |
> |    foo =3D foldl union emptySet $ maybe mzero return $ lookup pairs key
> |    goo =3D maybe emptySet toSomething $ lookup pairs key
> |
> | which really should look like this:
> |
> |    foo =3D concat $ lookup pairs key
> |    goo =3D fmap toSomething $ lookup pairs key
> |
> | But, even if we don't have a Monadic/Functor Set,
> | foo should at least be:
> |
> |    foo =3D foldl union emptySet $ lookup key
> |
> | In other words, shouldn't Prelude define concat
> | and lookup as:
> |
> |    concat =3D foldr mplus mzero -- (Also, see PS)
> |
> |    lookup key [] =3D mzero
> |    lookup key ((x,y):xyz)
> |      | key =3D=3D x =3D return y
> |      | otherwise =3D lookup key xyz
> |
> | And if it is a fundamental problem adding
> | constraints to instances, why not add all
> | automatically derivable classes as constraints to
> | all the Prelude classes (esp.  Monad and Functor!)
> | and automatically derive instances of all
> | derivable classes unless the programmer defines
> | his/own methods.
> |
> | -Alex-
> |
> | PS Shouldn't concat be defined with foldl and not
> | foldr?  Doesn't foldr imply that you can't concat
> | infinite lists?  (I know this is a FAQ, but
> | where?)
> |
> | _________________________________________________________________
> | S. Alexander Jacobson                  mailto:me at alexjacobson.com
> | tel:917-770-6565                       http://alexjacobson.com
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