Parameterized Show? was Re: [Haskell] Conceptual overloading of show?

[Shae Matijs Erisson]

Graham Klyne <gk at ninebynine.org> writes:

> I raise a topic that has occurred to me repeatedly during my time with
> Haskell.  I am prompted to do so by a discussion in another place, where a
> significant (and, apparently, recurring) concern about the use and abuse of
> Java's toString() function is being raised.
>
> It seems to me that there are (at least) two important uses for a function
> like 'show', which may sometimes have very different requirements:
>
> (1) creation of some human-readable representation of a value, which may or
> may not contain sufficient information to reconstruct the value, and
>
> (2) creation of a textual serialization of a value from which the value can
> subsequently be recreated.
>
> Where this leads is that I think there should be *two* common value-to-string
> type classes, one of which is reversible (in the sense that the output of
> show is intended to be consumable by read), and another that is not required
> to be reversible and provides output for human consumption.  E.g., let's call
> the new class 'Format':

This is similar Python's str() (string) vs repr() (representation) functions.

Python's repr is designed to work like 
"read . show = id" 
such that 
eval(repr(x)) == x
and repr also makes a string (only ASCII as far as I know).

But maybe this doesn't have to be limited to strings?
I've wanted "deriving WebPublish" and at some level that also involves a "show
as html/xml" My WebPublish ideas would be easier with "readXML.showXML == id"
Dominic Steinitz' ASN.1 code might be easier with readASN1/showASN1

I get the feeling there's a higher-level pattern here, but I don't how to
capture it with Haskell's Read/Show classes.

Some discussion on #haskell turned up:

Björn Bringert mentioned the THDeriveXmlRpcType module in his XmlRpc library.
So maybe Show can be parameterized on various 'transports' ?
Philippa Cowderoy suggested "Show signal carrier" instead of the present "Show
signal [implicit String]"
Maybe deriving (Show Transport) like deriving (Show XmlRpc)?

Any thoughts along these lines?
-- 
Shae Matijs Erisson - Programmer - http://www.ScannedInAvian.org/
"I will, as we say in rock 'n' roll, run until the wheels come off, 
because I love what I do." -- David Crosby