#8581: Add support for explicitly-bidirectional pattern synonyms ------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: cactus | Owner: cactus Type: feature request | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: Keywords: | Operating System: Unknown/Multiple Architecture: Unknown/Multiple | Type of failure: None/Unknown Difficulty: Unknown | Test Case: Blocked By: 5144 | Blocking: Related Tickets: | ------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Some patterns cannot, by themselves, be turned over into an expression, so they have to be defined as unidirectional. Maybe the most trivial example would be {{{ pattern P -> _ }}} Sometimes, however, it would be desirable to give an explicit way of turning these pattern synonyms into expressions. The PatternSynonyms wiki page has this example: {{{ import qualified Data.Sequence as Seq pattern Empty -> (Seq.viewl -> Seq.EmptyL) pattern x :< xs -> (Seq.viewl -> x Seq.:< xs) pattern xs :> x -> (Seq.viewr -> xs Seq.:> x) }}} It would make a ton of sense to be able to use this cons/snoc notation as "constructors" for `Seq`s. The proposed syntax for this {{{ pattern x :< xs -> (Seq.viewl -> x Seq.:< xs) where x :< xs = x Seq.<| xs }}} -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/8581 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler