Sorry, the text example again without HTML formatting: test= runBackT $ do lift $ print "will not return back here" liftBackPoint $ print "will return here" n2 <- lift $ getLine lift $ print "second input" n3 <- lift $ getLine if n3 == "back" then fail "" else lift $ print $ n2++n3 I wrote a blog entry about this : http://haskell-web.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/failback-monad.html 2012/3/28 Alberto G. Corona <agocorona@gmail.com>:

Hi Haskellers.

In my package MFlow [1] I program an entire web  navigation in a single procedure. That happened  in the good-old WASH web application framework. The problem is the back button in the Browser. To go back in the code to the previous interactions when the data input does not match the expected because the user pressed the back button one or more times, i came across this Monad specimen,: that solves the problem.

data FailBack a = BackPoint a   -- will go back to this point                             | NoBack a       . -- Normal outcome                             | GoBack            -- "exception":: must go to the last backPoint

newtype BackT m a = BackT { runBackT :: m (FailBack a ) }

-- this monad nas a loop

instance Monad m => Monad (BackT  m) where    fail   _ = BackT $ return GoBack    return x = BackT . return $ NoBack x    x >>= f  = BackT $ loop     where     loop = do        v <- runBackT x        case v of            NoBack y  -> runBackT (f y)  -- business as usual            BackPoint y  -> do                 z <- runBackT (f y)                 case z of                  GoBack  -> loop          -- if x was a backpoint, then redirects the flow to this backpoint                  other -> return other            GoBack -> return  GoBack --propagate the signal back

 This monad does not perform exploration of alternatives as is the case of MonadPlus instances. It does not perform the kind of backtracking of "nondeterministic"  three navigations in the Prolog style. It just go back to the last point where the computation can restart again in a  sequence of actions.

In this example:

liftBackPoint f= BackT $ f >>= \x -> return $ BackPoint x

test= runBackT $ do       lift $ print "will not return back here"        liftBackPoint $ print "will return here"        n2  <- lift $ getLine        lift $ print "second input"        n3  <- lift $  getLine        if n3 == "back"                   then  fail ""                   else lift $ print  $ n2++n3

Whenever the second input is "back" The procedure will go back to where liftBackPoint is. Otherwise, it will return the concatenation of the two inputs. If the underlying monad is an instance of MonadState, it can transport the state that caused the failure to the backpoint.

Are there something similar? May it be functionally equivalent to something simpler or with more grounds?  I looked at some exception monads out there, but they did not seems to share the same idea

[1] http://haskell-web.blogspot.com.es/2012/02/web-application-server-with-state...

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 01:34:29AM +0100, Alberto G. Corona wrote:

In my package MFlow [1] I program an entire web navigation in a single procedure. That happened in the good-old WASH web application framework. The problem is the back button in the Browser. To go back in the code to the previous interactions when the data input does not match the expected because the user pressed the back button one or more times, i came across this Monad specimen,: that solves the problem.

This definition does not satisfy the right identity law (m >>= return = m) included in the monad definition: *FailBack> BackT [BackPoint 1] >>= return BackT [NoBack 1]