[Template-haskell] Reification of local names

[Ian Lynagh]

On Mon, Jun 21, 2004 at 05:52:04PM +0100, Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:
> 
> One idea: add (Maybe Type) fields to many TH syntax forms, where the
> type checker can record types.  That's simple and direct. 
> 
> A general question to TH aficionados: would this be useful?  Remember
> that the type may not be fully precise, because it's the result of
> type-checking an as-yet-unspliced fragment.

I know almost nothing about views, but would they allow us to treat a
datatype with (Maybe Type)s as either one with Types or one identical to
what we currently have, at our choice?

I think there are probably cases where we will have to lose type info
when we manipulate datastructures in the second view, but overall I
think this could work well.

I don't relish the thought of having to sprinkle Nothings liberally over
my code.


Thanks
Ian