This strikes me as a more powerful form of RebindableSyntax, blazing new 
territory. (Existing RebindableSyntax never use Template Haskell.)

I assume you've emailed the Haskell Prime list because you wish this to be 
considered for inclusion in the next version of the standard. However, an 
extension this large would need to be vetted by implementation in a compiler 
(assumedly, GHC) before we can consider inclusion in a standard. If you wish to 
pursue this, I recommend generating a groundswell of interest from the 
community and writing a more formal proposal detailing exactly how such macros 
should be desugared into Template Haskell. You give an example below, and that 
is helpful, but we would need a more formal description.

This is, certainly, an interesting idea and would allow for yet more flexible 
extensions to the language, all without changing the compiler.

Thanks,
Richard

On May 18, 2016, at 3:10 PM, Anton Felix Lorenzen <anfe...@posteo.de> wrote:

> Hello list,
> 
> I want to propose a new way of writing template-haskell macros.
> It is based on the idea, that syntax like this:
> do {
>   x <- getLine;
>   putStrLn x;
> }
> should be parsed into:
> $( do
>   [ [| x <- getLine |]
>   , [| putStrLn x   |]
>   ] )
> Then a function (do :: NonEmpty ExpQ -> ExpQ) will be called
> and executed.
> 
> This would allow for a couple of useful macros:
>  - do
>  - case
>  - fold -- fold the ExpQs into one, see below for details
>  - eval -- evaluate ExpQs at compile-time
>  - (maybe even) hamlet -- evaluate hamlet QQ
>  - CPP replacements?
> 
> Nothing will be added which isn't possible today.
> Nonetheless it will allow for a much cleaner syntax
> and by this make things usable which weren't usable before.
> 
> Also it might be easier to implement new features.
> For example ApplicativeDo and RecursiveDo
> could have been implemented by a hackage package.
> MultiWayIf could be a function, too.
> 
> apply
>  [1..(10*365)]
>  map (replicate 3)
>  concat
> 
> conc
>  "Hello World! \n"
>  "How are you? \n"
> 
> Greetings,
> Anton
> 
> ===== Example Macros =====
> 
> see in context: https://github.com/anfelor/EasyMacros
> 
> conc = fold [| (++) |]
> apply = fold [|flip ($)|]
> 
> fold :: ExpQ -- (a -> b -> c)
>   -> NonEmpty (Q Exp) -> Q Exp
> fold _ (a :| []) = a
> fold fn (a :| b : xs) = fold fn (([| fn $a $b |]) :| xs)
> 
> do_ :: NonEmpty (Q Stmt) -> Q Exp
> do_ (x :| []) = x >>= \case
>     BindS _ _ -> fail "The last statement in a 'do' block must be an 
> expression"
>     NoBindS e -> return e
> do_ (x :| xs) = x >>= \case
>     BindS pat exp -> [| $(return exp) >>= \ $(return pat) -> $(do_ (fromList 
> xs)) |]
>     NoBindS   exp -> [| $(return exp) >> $(do_ (fromList xs)) |]
> _______________________________________________
> Haskell-prime mailing list
> Haskell-prime@haskell.org
> http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/haskell-prime

_______________________________________________
Haskell-prime mailing list
Haskell-prime@haskell.org
http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/haskell-prime

Reply via email to