[web-devel] Hamlet variable interpolation syntax [previously: A few questions about Yesod]

Alexander Dunlap alexander.dunlap at gmail.com
Fri Dec 31 05:08:45 CET 2010


2010/12/30 Michael Snoyman <michael at snoyman.com>:
> On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Alexander Dunlap
> <alexander.dunlap at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 2010/12/30 Michael Snoyman <michael at snoyman.com>:
>>> On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 3:31 PM, Iustin Pop <iustin at google.com> wrote:
>>>> On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 03:09:16PM +0200, Michael Snoyman wrote:
>>>>> Very good questions, answers below.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Iustin Pop <iustin at google.com> wrote:
>>>>> > Hi all,
>>>>> >
>>>>> > I just started looking at Yesod and its associated libs (hamlet, etc.)
>>>>> > and it is very interesting, thanks.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > However, I'm confused by a few things and the docs are not helping, so
>>>>> > please bear my beginner questions.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > First: hamlet uses '.' as function application, instead of the usual
>>>>> > space. How can I then use a qualified name (e.g. Data.List.nub)? If I
>>>>> > use it normally, it errors out on me. Must be something very trivial but
>>>>> > I cannot find a way.
>>>>>
>>>>> Hamlet uses both '.' and space as function application, and therefore
>>>>> qualified names are not supported. I work around this usually by
>>>>> creating an alias for the function I want locally. I know this can be
>>>>> inelegant; if you have any ideas, I'm all ears.
>>>>
>>>> Yep, that's what I'm using too now, but it becomes cumbersome quickly,
>>>> especially when using records…
>>>>
>>>> I'm not sure what was the original impetus to use . (too) as function
>>>> application if space is accepted too. I'm thinking reverting that
>>>> decision would make the code look more like regular Haskell.
>>>>
>>>> A simpler alternative (not sure if easily doable) would be to allow
>>>> escaping of the dot, e.g. $Data\.List\.nub.mylist$; it's ugly, but…
>>>
>>> It actually went the other way: period first, and space added by
>>> request. Originally, Hamlet variables were not directly mapped to
>>> Haskell function calls. Instead, it was meant to parallel variable
>>> lookup in common template languages from the object-oriented world.
>>> Another impetus is because of statements like forall and maybe:
>>>
>>> $forall allPeople.myFamily person
>>>    %li $person name$
>>>
>>> This can also be written as
>>>
>>> $forall (allPeople myFamily) person
>>>
>>> You could argue that the latter is more legible; my problem with the
>>> space is for cases with more than two functions in the chain. $foo bar
>>> baz$ gets converted to the Haskell code "foo (bar baz)".
>>>
>>> I'll admit that this whole situation bothers me as well. Hamlet 0.7 is
>>> currently in the works, and I don't mind introducing some major
>>> changes. I think this issue deserves some attention: what does
>>> everyone else think? Maybe we should start a separate thread to
>>> discuss this issue in particular.
>>>
>>
>> Would there be a problem with removing the dot syntax entirely and
>> just having regular Haskell syntax for variable interpretation? That
>> might be more flexible and easier to learn.
>>
>> Alexander
>>
>
> I'm beginning to lean that direction as well. As far as forall/maybe
> syntax, I propose adding a comma:
>
> $forall foo bar baz, bin
>
> I specifically want to avoid using a keyword such as in, since we
> shouldn't be limiting the variables names available, and I think it's
> not very well distinguished from the surrounding words.
>
> Are you recommending not allowing hierarchical functions, or did I
> misunderstand?
>
> Michael
>

Could it just be interpreted as-is by the compiler? (Does TH allow
plugging in some literal code?) Then hierarchical functions, lambda
expressions, whatever would all be allowed "for free". (The only
problem would be the delimiter.)

Alex



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