Hi folks

Sorry, meant to send this around, not just to Klaus

Conor
--- Begin Message ---
Hi Klaus

Deep breath!

Klaus Ostermann wrote:
Hi all,

I have a problem which is probably not a problem at all for Haskell experts,
but I am struggling with it nevertheless.

I want to model the following situation. I have ASTs for a language in two
variatns: A "simple" form and a "labelled" form, e.g.

data SimpleExp = Num Int | Add SimpleExp SimpleExp

data LabelledExp = LNum Int String | LAdd LabelledExp LabelledExp String

I wonder what would be the best way to model this situation without
repeating the structure of the AST.

A trick we use all the time in the implementation of Epigram, for pretty much the purpose you suggest, is to abstract over a type constructor which packs recursive nodes. Thus

> type Node exp node = node (exp node)
>   -- Node :: ((* -> *) -> *) -> (* -> *) -> *
> data Exp node = Num Int | Add (Node Exp node) (Node Exp node)
>   -- Exp :: (* -> *) -> *

So now, with

> data Id x = An x

you get

> type SimpleExp = Node Exp Id
> type LabelledExp = Node Exp ((,) String)

Being incremental programmers, us Epigram folk also like syntax with holes

> type UnfinishedExp = Node Exp Maybe

Now we can make a node reshaping gadget like this

> renode :: ((Exp m -> Exp n) -> Node Exp m -> Node Exp n) ->
>           Node Exp m -> Node Exp n
> renode transform me = transform inside me where
>   inside (Num i)        = Num i
> inside (Add me1 me2) = Add (renode transform me1) (renode transform me2)

> unlabel :: LabelledExp -> SimpleExp
> unlabel = renode (\f (_,x) -> An (f x))

Of course, to see what's going on, you might want something like {- needs -fglasgow-exts -}

> instance Show SimpleExp where
>   show (An (Num i))    = "(Num " ++ show i ++ ")"
>   show (An (Add x y))  = "(Add " ++ show x ++ " " ++ show y ++ ")"

So you get {- genuine output -}

*Nodes> unlabel ("fred", Add ("jim", Num 1) ("sheila", Num 2))
(Add (Num 1) (Num 2))

Of course, you can also play the same sort of game, making Node explicitly a fixpoint operator and removingthe recursion from Exp, like this:

newtype Node exp node = Node (node (exp (Node exp node)))
data Exp exp = Num Int | Add exp exp

but we don't, because it makes mutually defined syntactic categories get way out of hand.

Third order programming. It's a whole other order.

Enjoy

Conor



--- End Message ---
_______________________________________________
Haskell-Cafe mailing list
Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org
http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

Reply via email to