The second solution requires QuasiQuotes, so I do not know. If I would want to compile with a different compiler it would break. If srcloc can be defined as a simple token (not requiring special extensions at places where it is used) then I could define it to an empty string in some low level module if trying to compile with a different haskell compiler which does not know srcloc.
You can do better than that, if you combine the QuasiQuotes hack with the CPP hack (I've also simplified the srcloc handling by adding a version of error that adds source location info, moving the exception manipulation out into SrcLocQQ, avoiding the need for Debug.Trace alltogether). The portable version does get a bit uglier because you need macros, not functions (you'll probably want to check for GHC version or -better, but not supported- QuasiQuotes availability). Also, CPP only gives you the line number, not the position, but that is better than nothing, and often sufficient. Still, it would be much nicer if GHC inserted the location info at the call sites if a pragma at the definition site asked it to do so. Then this {-# SRCLOC f #-} f Nothing = "okay" f _ = error "f applied to not-Nothing in: " could be equivalent to the code below, without QuasiQuotes or CPP or ERRORSRC all over the place. But such niceties are on hold while the discussion of even nicer help is ongoing.. (which is partly justified because we cannot easily build nicer abstractions over a barebones solution, due to the macro vs function issue, so the design does need thought). Perhaps the code below is sufficient as an interim workaround. Claus ----------------------------- {-# LANGUAGE CPP #-} {-# LANGUAGE QuasiQuotes #-} #ifdef __GLASGOW_HASKELL__ #define SRCLOC [$srcloc||] #define ERRORSRC [$errorSrc||] #else #define SRCLOC (show (__FILE__,__LINE__)) #define ERRORSRC (\msg->error $ msg++SRCLOC) #endif import SrcLocQQ f errorSrc Nothing = "okay" f errorSrc _ = errorSrc "f applied to not-Nothing in: " main = do print $ f ERRORSRC Nothing print $ f ERRORSRC (Just ()) print $ SRCLOC ----------------------------- {-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell #-} module SrcLocQQ where import Language.Haskell.TH.Quote import Language.Haskell.TH import Control.Exception srcloc = QuasiQuoter (\_->[| mapException (\(PatternMatchFail fail)-> let srcloc = reverse (dropWhile (/=':') (reverse fail)) in PatternMatchFail srcloc) $ case True of False -> "srcloc" |]) (error "pattern srclocs not supported") errorSrc = QuasiQuoter (\_->[| \msg->mapException (\(PatternMatchFail fail)-> let srcloc = reverse (dropWhile (/=':') (reverse fail)) in PatternMatchFail (msg++srcloc)) $ case True of False -> "srcloc" |]) (error "pattern srclocs not supported") -----------------------------