[GHC] #4517: Add Data.Functor.Backwards to transformers

[roconnor at theorem.ca]

Discussion so far.

There are three aspects of functors that can be "reversed"

1. Foldable-Traversable
2. Applicative
3. Alternative-MonadPlus

It appears at first glance that all three of these aspects are independent 
and thus we would need three different wrappers to implement the three 
separate functionality.  For example lists have all three aspects and one 
can imagine possibly reversing list instances independently in each of the 
aspects.

So far two name are proposed: Backwards and Reverse.  There is one request 
for not using Reverse because someone want to use it to dualize Ord; 
however it was suggested that Converse be used for Ord.

The question of whether 3 is or isn't independent of the other two is made 
more difficult due to Alternative/MonadPlus not having a clear set of 
laws.  In fact, MonadPlus has two candidate sets of laws that are not 
compatible with each other.

One possibility is to split this proposal into three proposal, one for each 
of the aspects.  I suggest not doing this, or at least not splitting it up 
yet, since, although these items appear that they can be applied 
independently, they are still interrelated as one can see by the fact that 
the Traversable Reverse instance uses the Applicative Reverse instance.

-- 
Russell O'Connor                                      <http://r6.ca/>
``All talk about `theft,''' the general counsel of the American Graphophone
Company wrote, ``is the merest claptrap, for there exists no property in
ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as defined by statute.''