Re: Add laws to Alternative

On 01/11/13 12:44, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Firstly, I don't see how IO is relevant here, it has neither a MonadPlus instance nor an Alternative instance.
You are right. I thought it was an instance with mzero=fail "foo" and mplus=catch. But I was apparently mistaken. Objection withdrawn.
Secondly, the MonadPlus laws are documented in Control.Monad to be:
mzero >>= f = mzero v >> mzero = mzero
I missed them, because they are written in the documentation of mzero rather than the documentation of the class where I expected them.
Thirdly, the monoid laws are already documented. (<|>) must be "An associative binary operation", and empty "The identity of <|>". These are exactly the monoid laws. Perhaps they should be made more explicit, but that is a different issue.
Missed this as well.
Fourthly, [] fulfils neither the left-distribution law or the left-catch law, and I doubt many people would be happy to lose []'s MonadPlus instance.
List does satisfy left distribution: λ> (,) <$> ([1,2] <|> [3]) <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> (,) <$> [1,2] <*> [4,5] <|> (,) <$> [3] <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> quickCheck (\x y z -> ((,) <$> (x <|> y :: [Int]) <*> (z :: [Int])) == (((,) <$> x <*> z) <|> ((,) <$> y <*> z))) +++ OK, passed 100 tests. See also http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus. Then law which it doesn't is right distribution. Consider Maybe. it does satisfies left catch but not left distribution for MonadPlus. Since mplus (Just False >>= guard) (Just True >>= guard) = Just () while mplus (Just False) (Just True) >>= guard = Nothing But for Alternative, you can't have the failure of the second argument of (<*>) depend on the first. So Maybe *does* satisfy left distribution for Alternative. IMO that makes it a good candidate law. Twan
I believe I have addressed all your issues. If I've missed something, please point it out to me.
Nathan.
On 1 November 2013 12:09, Twan van Laarhoven
mailto:twanvl@gmail.com> wrote: On 01/11/13 11:42, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Proposal: add the following laws to the documentation of Control.Applicative.__Alternative:
* empty <*> a = empty * f <*> empty = empty
> These laws correspond to the laws given in MonadPlus- if you take mzero = > empty and ap = (<*>), the ones in MonadPlus imply these- and I don't think > this proposal should be too controversial.
As far as I can see, the documentation for MonadPlus does not specify these laws anywhere [1,2].
Consider the IO monad. These laws claim that
launchMissiles *> fail "empty" = fail "empty"
This is clearly *not* true.
--
If we add laws, I think we should first consider the much more reasonable monoid laws
identity empty <|> a = a a <|> empty = a associativity: (a <|> b) <|> c = a <|> (b <|> c)
In the MonadPlus world, the controversial part is the choice between
left distribution (f <|> g) <*> a = (f <*> a) <|> (g <*> a)
or
left catch pure a <|> b = pure a
Your proposal would be
left zero
empty <*> a = empty right zero
f <*> empty = empty
And as mentioned above, right zero is problematic. The fmap version should be okay though
map zero f <$> empty = empty
Twan
[1] http://hackage.haskell.org/__package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/__Control-Monad.html#... http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/Control-Monad.html#t:Mo... [2] http://www.haskell.org/__haskellwiki/MonadPlus http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus _________________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org mailto:Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/__mailman/listinfo/libraries http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries

In the package uu-interleaved I introduce a new class
class Splittable f where
getNonPure :: f a -> Maybe (f a)Source
getPure :: f a -> Maybe aSource
which I use for splitting an applicative value into its pure and its non-pure part. This is then used in the rest of this package to define (non-ambiguous) interleaved structures (as a generalisation of permuted structures).
My feeling that this class should be better located in Control.Applicative.Alternative.
If you agree what are the steps to be taken?
Doaitse
On 01 Nov 2013, at 14:08 , Twan van Laarhoven
On 01/11/13 12:44, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Firstly, I don't see how IO is relevant here, it has neither a MonadPlus instance nor an Alternative instance.
You are right. I thought it was an instance with mzero=fail "foo" and mplus=catch. But I was apparently mistaken. Objection withdrawn.
Secondly, the MonadPlus laws are documented in Control.Monad to be:
mzero >>= f = mzero v >> mzero = mzero
I missed them, because they are written in the documentation of mzero rather than the documentation of the class where I expected them.
Thirdly, the monoid laws are already documented. (<|>) must be "An associative binary operation", and empty "The identity of <|>". These are exactly the monoid laws. Perhaps they should be made more explicit, but that is a different issue.
Missed this as well.
Fourthly, [] fulfils neither the left-distribution law or the left-catch law, and I doubt many people would be happy to lose []'s MonadPlus instance.
List does satisfy left distribution:
λ> (,) <$> ([1,2] <|> [3]) <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> (,) <$> [1,2] <*> [4,5] <|> (,) <$> [3] <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> quickCheck (\x y z -> ((,) <$> (x <|> y :: [Int]) <*> (z :: [Int])) == (((,) <$> x <*> z) <|> ((,) <$> y <*> z))) +++ OK, passed 100 tests.
See also http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus. Then law which it doesn't is right distribution.
Consider Maybe. it does satisfies left catch but not left distribution for MonadPlus. Since mplus (Just False >>= guard) (Just True >>= guard) = Just () while mplus (Just False) (Just True) >>= guard = Nothing
But for Alternative, you can't have the failure of the second argument of (<*>) depend on the first. So Maybe *does* satisfy left distribution for Alternative. IMO that makes it a good candidate law.
Twan
I believe I have addressed all your issues. If I've missed something, please point it out to me.
Nathan.
On 1 November 2013 12:09, Twan van Laarhoven
mailto:twanvl@gmail.com> wrote: On 01/11/13 11:42, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Proposal: add the following laws to the documentation of Control.Applicative.__Alternative:
* empty <*> a = empty * f <*> empty = empty
> These laws correspond to the laws given in MonadPlus- if you take mzero = > empty and ap = (<*>), the ones in MonadPlus imply these- and I don't think > this proposal should be too controversial.
As far as I can see, the documentation for MonadPlus does not specify these laws anywhere [1,2].
Consider the IO monad. These laws claim that
launchMissiles *> fail "empty" = fail "empty"
This is clearly *not* true.
--
If we add laws, I think we should first consider the much more reasonable monoid laws
identity empty <|> a = a a <|> empty = a associativity: (a <|> b) <|> c = a <|> (b <|> c)
In the MonadPlus world, the controversial part is the choice between
left distribution (f <|> g) <*> a = (f <*> a) <|> (g <*> a)
or
left catch pure a <|> b = pure a
Your proposal would be
left zero
empty <*> a = empty right zero
f <*> empty = empty
And as mentioned above, right zero is problematic. The fmap version should be okay though
map zero f <$> empty = empty
Twan
[1] http://hackage.haskell.org/__package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/__Control-Monad.html#... http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/Control-Monad.html#t:Mo... [2] http://www.haskell.org/__haskellwiki/MonadPlus http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus _________________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org mailto:Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/__mailman/listinfo/libraries http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries
_______________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries

A few thoughts:
* Splittable has been used as a name historically for splitting random
number generators and the like, so the name conflict (especially from
somewhere so prominent) would be unfortunate. That can of course be fixed
by a simple bikeshedding exercise.
* You should be able to implement this in one pass. e.g. f a -> Either a (f
a) rather than as two combinators, but it isn't clear to me what the
getNonPure branch can do other than return the original when the scan fails
or some partially zonked/expanded version of it.
* Personally, I'm rather hesitant, as there are a lot of points in the
design space and it isn't apparent how to implement/lift it for instance
over any of the monad transformers we have, so it is the kind of class that
lifting it too high up the import hierarchy will lead to users being forced
to write orphans, when they disagree about whether, say writer (mempty, a)
should be an effect or not or if you should be have instance (Monad m,
Splittable m, Eq s) => Splittable (StateT s m).
* The lack of any constraints on `f` tying it to anything else in
Control.Applicative gives me pause. Without any relationship to other types
it is harder to specify the laws and make them feel coherent rather than
bolted on.
Off the cuff, I'm currently -1 on this proposal, almost entirely because of
the concern I'd have that pushing it too far up the class hierarchy
actually invites a worse experience due to orphans than leaving it closer
to the use site where such ambiguous cases can be resolved unilaterally by
the author or ignored as irrelevant by them safely.
-Edward
On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 5:58 AM, Doaitse Swierstra
In the package uu-interleaved I introduce a new class
class Splittable f where getNonPure :: f a -> Maybe (f a)Source getPure :: f a -> Maybe aSource
which I use for splitting an applicative value into its pure and its non-pure part. This is then used in the rest of this package to define (non-ambiguous) interleaved structures (as a generalisation of permuted structures).
My feeling that this class should be better located in Control.Applicative.Alternative.
If you agree what are the steps to be taken?
Doaitse
On 01 Nov 2013, at 14:08 , Twan van Laarhoven
wrote: On 01/11/13 12:44, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Firstly, I don't see how IO is relevant here, it has neither a MonadPlus instance nor an Alternative instance.
You are right. I thought it was an instance with mzero=fail "foo" and mplus=catch. But I was apparently mistaken. Objection withdrawn.
Secondly, the MonadPlus laws are documented in Control.Monad to be:
mzero >>= f = mzero v >> mzero = mzero
I missed them, because they are written in the documentation of mzero rather than the documentation of the class where I expected them.
Thirdly, the monoid laws are already documented. (<|>) must be "An associative binary operation", and empty "The identity of <|>". These are exactly the monoid laws. Perhaps they should be made more explicit, but that is a different issue.
Missed this as well.
Fourthly, [] fulfils neither the left-distribution law or the left-catch law, and I doubt many people would be happy to lose []'s MonadPlus instance.
List does satisfy left distribution:
λ> (,) <$> ([1,2] <|> [3]) <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> (,) <$> [1,2] <*> [4,5] <|> (,) <$> [3] <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> quickCheck (\x y z -> ((,) <$> (x <|> y :: [Int]) <*> (z :: [Int])) == (((,) <$> x <*> z) <|> ((,) <$> y <*> z))) +++ OK, passed 100 tests.
See also http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus. Then law which it doesn't is right distribution.
Consider Maybe. it does satisfies left catch but not left distribution for MonadPlus. Since mplus (Just False >>= guard) (Just True >>= guard) = Just () while mplus (Just False) (Just True) >>= guard = Nothing
But for Alternative, you can't have the failure of the second argument of (<*>) depend on the first. So Maybe *does* satisfy left distribution for Alternative. IMO that makes it a good candidate law.
Twan
I believe I have addressed all your issues. If I've missed something, please point it out to me.
Nathan.
On 1 November 2013 12:09, Twan van Laarhoven
mailto:twanvl@gmail.com> wrote: On 01/11/13 11:42, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Proposal: add the following laws to the documentation of Control.Applicative.__Alternative:
* empty <*> a = empty * f <*> empty = empty
> These laws correspond to the laws given in MonadPlus- if you take mzero = > empty and ap = (<*>), the ones in MonadPlus imply these- and I don't think > this proposal should be too controversial.
As far as I can see, the documentation for MonadPlus does not specify these laws anywhere [1,2].
Consider the IO monad. These laws claim that
launchMissiles *> fail "empty" = fail "empty"
This is clearly *not* true.
--
If we add laws, I think we should first consider the much more reasonable monoid laws
identity empty <|> a = a a <|> empty = a associativity: (a <|> b) <|> c = a <|> (b <|> c)
In the MonadPlus world, the controversial part is the choice between
left distribution (f <|> g) <*> a = (f <*> a) <|> (g <*> a)
or
left catch pure a <|> b = pure a
Your proposal would be
left zero
empty <*> a = empty right zero
f <*> empty = empty
And as mentioned above, right zero is problematic. The fmap version should be okay though
map zero f <$> empty = empty
Twan
[1]
http://hackage.haskell.org/__package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/__Control-Monad.html#...
< http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/Control-Monad.html#t:Mo...
[2] http://www.haskell.org/__haskellwiki/MonadPlus http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus _________________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org mailto:Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/__mailman/listinfo/libraries http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries
_______________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries
_______________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries

Edward Kmett
writes:
Off the cuff, I'm currently -1 on this proposal, almost entirely because of the concern I'd have that pushing it too far up the class hierarchy actually invites a worse experience due to orphans than leaving it closer to the use site where such ambiguous cases can be resolved unilaterally by the author or ignored as irrelevant by them safely.
-1 in agreement with Edward. John

On 30 Apr 2014, at 15:50 , Edward Kmett
A few thoughts:
* Splittable has been used as a name historically for splitting random number generators and the like, so the name conflict (especially from somewhere so prominent) would be unfortunate. That can of course be fixed by a simple bikeshedding exercise.
* You should be able to implement this in one pass. e.g. f a -> Either a (f a) rather than as two combinators, but it isn't clear to me what the getNonPure branch can do other than return the original when the scan fails or some partially zonked/expanded version of it.
I have probably not been clear enough. The relationship that should hold between getPure and getNonPure is as follows: case (getPure p, genNonPure p) of (Nothing, Nothing) -> "should not happen since p should have at least a pure or a nonpure part" (Just pp, Just npp) -> pure pp <|> npp (Just np, Nothing) -> pure np (Nothing, Just npp) -> npp is equivalent to p. I do not see how this would correspond to your use of Either? Doaitse
* Personally, I'm rather hesitant, as there are a lot of points in the design space and it isn't apparent how to implement/lift it for instance over any of the monad transformers we have, so it is the kind of class that lifting it too high up the import hierarchy will lead to users being forced to write orphans, when they disagree about whether, say writer (mempty, a) should be an effect or not or if you should be have instance (Monad m, Splittable m, Eq s) => Splittable (StateT s m).
* The lack of any constraints on `f` tying it to anything else in Control.Applicative gives me pause. Without any relationship to other types it is harder to specify the laws and make them feel coherent rather than bolted on.
I think the code above clearly describes the relationship.
Off the cuff, I'm currently -1 on this proposal, almost entirely because of the concern I'd have that pushing it too far up the class hierarchy actually invites a worse experience due to orphans than leaving it closer to the use site where such ambiguous cases can be resolved unilaterally by the author or ignored as irrelevant by them safely.
-Edward
On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 5:58 AM, Doaitse Swierstra
wrote: In the package uu-interleaved I introduce a new class class Splittable f where getNonPure :: f a -> Maybe (f a)Source getPure :: f a -> Maybe aSource
which I use for splitting an applicative value into its pure and its non-pure part. This is then used in the rest of this package to define (non-ambiguous) interleaved structures (as a generalisation of permuted structures).
My feeling that this class should be better located in Control.Applicative.Alternative.
If you agree what are the steps to be taken?
Doaitse
On 01 Nov 2013, at 14:08 , Twan van Laarhoven
wrote: On 01/11/13 12:44, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Firstly, I don't see how IO is relevant here, it has neither a MonadPlus instance nor an Alternative instance.
You are right. I thought it was an instance with mzero=fail "foo" and mplus=catch. But I was apparently mistaken. Objection withdrawn.
Secondly, the MonadPlus laws are documented in Control.Monad to be:
mzero >>= f = mzero v >> mzero = mzero
I missed them, because they are written in the documentation of mzero rather than the documentation of the class where I expected them.
Thirdly, the monoid laws are already documented. (<|>) must be "An associative binary operation", and empty "The identity of <|>". These are exactly the monoid laws. Perhaps they should be made more explicit, but that is a different issue.
Missed this as well.
Fourthly, [] fulfils neither the left-distribution law or the left-catch law, and I doubt many people would be happy to lose []'s MonadPlus instance.
List does satisfy left distribution:
λ> (,) <$> ([1,2] <|> [3]) <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> (,) <$> [1,2] <*> [4,5] <|> (,) <$> [3] <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> quickCheck (\x y z -> ((,) <$> (x <|> y :: [Int]) <*> (z :: [Int])) == (((,) <$> x <*> z) <|> ((,) <$> y <*> z))) +++ OK, passed 100 tests.
See also http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus. Then law which it doesn't is right distribution.
Consider Maybe. it does satisfies left catch but not left distribution for MonadPlus. Since mplus (Just False >>= guard) (Just True >>= guard) = Just () while mplus (Just False) (Just True) >>= guard = Nothing
But for Alternative, you can't have the failure of the second argument of (<*>) depend on the first. So Maybe *does* satisfy left distribution for Alternative. IMO that makes it a good candidate law.
Twan
I believe I have addressed all your issues. If I've missed something, please point it out to me.
Nathan.
On 1 November 2013 12:09, Twan van Laarhoven
mailto:twanvl@gmail.com> wrote: On 01/11/13 11:42, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Proposal: add the following laws to the documentation of Control.Applicative.__Alternative:
* empty <*> a = empty * f <*> empty = empty
> These laws correspond to the laws given in MonadPlus- if you take mzero = > empty and ap = (<*>), the ones in MonadPlus imply these- and I don't think > this proposal should be too controversial.
As far as I can see, the documentation for MonadPlus does not specify these laws anywhere [1,2].
Consider the IO monad. These laws claim that
launchMissiles *> fail "empty" = fail "empty"
This is clearly *not* true.
--
If we add laws, I think we should first consider the much more reasonable monoid laws
identity empty <|> a = a a <|> empty = a associativity: (a <|> b) <|> c = a <|> (b <|> c)
In the MonadPlus world, the controversial part is the choice between
left distribution (f <|> g) <*> a = (f <*> a) <|> (g <*> a)
or
left catch pure a <|> b = pure a
Your proposal would be
left zero
empty <*> a = empty right zero
f <*> empty = empty
And as mentioned above, right zero is problematic. The fmap version should be okay though
map zero f <$> empty = empty
Twan
[1] http://hackage.haskell.org/__package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/__Control-Monad.html#... http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/Control-Monad.html#t:Mo... [2] http://www.haskell.org/__haskellwiki/MonadPlus http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus _________________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org mailto:Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/__mailman/listinfo/libraries http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries
_______________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries
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On Thu, May 01, 2014 at 01:19:50PM +0200, S D Swierstra wrote:
On 30 Apr 2014, at 15:50 , Edward Kmett
wrote: A few thoughts:
* Splittable has been used as a name historically for splitting random number generators and the like, so the name conflict (especially from somewhere so prominent) would be unfortunate. That can of course be fixed by a simple bikeshedding exercise.
* You should be able to implement this in one pass. e.g. f a -> Either a (f a) rather than as two combinators, but it isn't clear to me what the getNonPure branch can do other than return the original when the scan fails or some partially zonked/expanded version of it.
I have probably not been clear enough. The relationship that should hold between getPure and getNonPure is as follows:
case (getPure p, genNonPure p) of (Nothing, Nothing) -> "should not happen since p should have at least a pure or a nonpure part" (Just pp, Just npp) -> pure pp <|> npp (Just np, Nothing) -> pure np (Nothing, Just npp) -> npp
If (Nothing, Nothing) is impossible why not encode it in the type? data OneOrBoth a b = One a | Other b | Both a b class Splittable f where split :: f a -> OneOrBoth (f a) a Tom

The most commonly used version of that type is http://hackage.haskell.org/package/these-0.4.1/docs/Data-These.html but that isn't in base. -Edward On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 8:49 AM, Tom Ellis < tom-lists-haskell-cafe-2013@jaguarpaw.co.uk> wrote:
On Thu, May 01, 2014 at 01:19:50PM +0200, S D Swierstra wrote:
On 30 Apr 2014, at 15:50 , Edward Kmett
wrote: A few thoughts:
* Splittable has been used as a name historically for splitting random number generators and the like, so the name conflict (especially from somewhere so prominent) would be unfortunate. That can of course be fixed by a simple bikeshedding exercise.
* You should be able to implement this in one pass. e.g. f a -> Either a (f a) rather than as two combinators, but it isn't clear to me what the getNonPure branch can do other than return the original when the scan fails or some partially zonked/expanded version of it.
I have probably not been clear enough. The relationship that should hold between getPure and getNonPure is as follows:
case (getPure p, genNonPure p) of (Nothing, Nothing) -> "should not happen since p should have at least a pure or a nonpure part" (Just pp, Just npp) -> pure pp <|> npp (Just np, Nothing) -> pure np (Nothing, Just npp) -> npp
If (Nothing, Nothing) is impossible why not encode it in the type?
data OneOrBoth a b = One a | Other b | Both a b
class Splittable f where split :: f a -> OneOrBoth (f a) a
Tom _______________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries

On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 10:05 AM, Edward Kmett
The most commonly used version of that type is
http://hackage.haskell.org/package/these-0.4.1/docs/Data-These.html
There's also http://hackage.haskell.org/package/data-or-1.0.0.4/docs/Data-Or.html which has much lighter dependencies, though consequently lacks the corresponding typeclass instances -- Live well, ~wren

So:
instance Splittable [] where
getPure [] = Nothing
getPure (x:_) = Just x
getNonPure [] = Just []
getNonPure (_:xs) = Just xs
That’s the only possible instance then, right?
Sjoerd
On 01 May 2014, at 13:19, S D Swierstra
On 30 Apr 2014, at 15:50 , Edward Kmett
wrote: A few thoughts:
* Splittable has been used as a name historically for splitting random number generators and the like, so the name conflict (especially from somewhere so prominent) would be unfortunate. That can of course be fixed by a simple bikeshedding exercise.
* You should be able to implement this in one pass. e.g. f a -> Either a (f a) rather than as two combinators, but it isn't clear to me what the getNonPure branch can do other than return the original when the scan fails or some partially zonked/expanded version of it.
I have probably not been clear enough. The relationship that should hold between getPure and getNonPure is as follows:
case (getPure p, genNonPure p) of (Nothing, Nothing) -> "should not happen since p should have at least a pure or a nonpure part" (Just pp, Just npp) -> pure pp <|> npp (Just np, Nothing) -> pure np (Nothing, Just npp) -> npp
is equivalent to p.
I do not see how this would correspond to your use of Either?
Doaitse
* Personally, I'm rather hesitant, as there are a lot of points in the design space and it isn't apparent how to implement/lift it for instance over any of the monad transformers we have, so it is the kind of class that lifting it too high up the import hierarchy will lead to users being forced to write orphans, when they disagree about whether, say writer (mempty, a) should be an effect or not or if you should be have instance (Monad m, Splittable m, Eq s) => Splittable (StateT s m).
* The lack of any constraints on `f` tying it to anything else in Control.Applicative gives me pause. Without any relationship to other types it is harder to specify the laws and make them feel coherent rather than bolted on.
I think the code above clearly describes the relationship.
Off the cuff, I'm currently -1 on this proposal, almost entirely because of the concern I'd have that pushing it too far up the class hierarchy actually invites a worse experience due to orphans than leaving it closer to the use site where such ambiguous cases can be resolved unilaterally by the author or ignored as irrelevant by them safely.
-Edward
On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 5:58 AM, Doaitse Swierstra
wrote: In the package uu-interleaved I introduce a new class class Splittable f where getNonPure :: f a -> Maybe (f a)Source getPure :: f a -> Maybe aSource
which I use for splitting an applicative value into its pure and its non-pure part. This is then used in the rest of this package to define (non-ambiguous) interleaved structures (as a generalisation of permuted structures).
My feeling that this class should be better located in Control.Applicative.Alternative.
If you agree what are the steps to be taken?
Doaitse
On 01 Nov 2013, at 14:08 , Twan van Laarhoven
wrote: On 01/11/13 12:44, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Firstly, I don't see how IO is relevant here, it has neither a MonadPlus instance nor an Alternative instance.
You are right. I thought it was an instance with mzero=fail "foo" and mplus=catch. But I was apparently mistaken. Objection withdrawn.
Secondly, the MonadPlus laws are documented in Control.Monad to be:
mzero >>= f = mzero v >> mzero = mzero
I missed them, because they are written in the documentation of mzero rather than the documentation of the class where I expected them.
Thirdly, the monoid laws are already documented. (<|>) must be "An associative binary operation", and empty "The identity of <|>". These are exactly the monoid laws. Perhaps they should be made more explicit, but that is a different issue.
Missed this as well.
Fourthly, [] fulfils neither the left-distribution law or the left-catch law, and I doubt many people would be happy to lose []'s MonadPlus instance.
List does satisfy left distribution:
λ> (,) <$> ([1,2] <|> [3]) <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> (,) <$> [1,2] <*> [4,5] <|> (,) <$> [3] <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> quickCheck (\x y z -> ((,) <$> (x <|> y :: [Int]) <*> (z :: [Int])) == (((,) <$> x <*> z) <|> ((,) <$> y <*> z))) +++ OK, passed 100 tests.
See also http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus. Then law which it doesn't is right distribution.
Consider Maybe. it does satisfies left catch but not left distribution for MonadPlus. Since mplus (Just False >>= guard) (Just True >>= guard) = Just () while mplus (Just False) (Just True) >>= guard = Nothing
But for Alternative, you can't have the failure of the second argument of (<*>) depend on the first. So Maybe *does* satisfy left distribution for Alternative. IMO that makes it a good candidate law.
Twan
I believe I have addressed all your issues. If I've missed something, please point it out to me.
Nathan.
On 1 November 2013 12:09, Twan van Laarhoven
mailto:twanvl@gmail.com> wrote: On 01/11/13 11:42, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Proposal: add the following laws to the documentation of Control.Applicative.__Alternative:
* empty <*> a = empty * f <*> empty = empty
> These laws correspond to the laws given in MonadPlus- if you take mzero = > empty and ap = (<*>), the ones in MonadPlus imply these- and I don't think > this proposal should be too controversial.
As far as I can see, the documentation for MonadPlus does not specify these laws anywhere [1,2].
Consider the IO monad. These laws claim that
launchMissiles *> fail "empty" = fail "empty"
This is clearly *not* true.
--
If we add laws, I think we should first consider the much more reasonable monoid laws
identity empty <|> a = a a <|> empty = a associativity: (a <|> b) <|> c = a <|> (b <|> c)
In the MonadPlus world, the controversial part is the choice between
left distribution (f <|> g) <*> a = (f <*> a) <|> (g <*> a)
or
left catch pure a <|> b = pure a
Your proposal would be
left zero
empty <*> a = empty right zero
f <*> empty = empty
And as mentioned above, right zero is problematic. The fmap version should be okay though
map zero f <$> empty = empty
Twan
[1] http://hackage.haskell.org/__package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/__Control-Monad.html#... http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/Control-Monad.html#t:Mo... [2] http://www.haskell.org/__haskellwiki/MonadPlus http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus _________________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org mailto:Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/__mailman/listinfo/libraries http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries
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My use of Either was predicated on an interpretation that something was
either pure or impure, not that getPure was trying to extract part of the
whole.
-Edward
On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 7:19 AM, S D Swierstra
On 30 Apr 2014, at 15:50 , Edward Kmett
wrote: A few thoughts:
* Splittable has been used as a name historically for splitting random number generators and the like, so the name conflict (especially from somewhere so prominent) would be unfortunate. That can of course be fixed by a simple bikeshedding exercise.
* You should be able to implement this in one pass. e.g. f a -> Either a (f a) rather than as two combinators, but it isn't clear to me what the getNonPure branch can do other than return the original when the scan fails or some partially zonked/expanded version of it.
I have probably not been clear enough. The relationship that should hold between getPure and getNonPure is as follows:
case (getPure p, genNonPure p) of (Nothing, Nothing) -> "should not happen since p should have at least a pure or a nonpure part" (Just pp, Just npp) -> pure pp <|> npp (Just np, Nothing) -> pure np (Nothing, Just npp) -> npp
is equivalent to p.
I do not see how this would correspond to your use of Either?
Doaitse
* Personally, I'm rather hesitant, as there are a lot of points in the design space and it isn't apparent how to implement/lift it for instance over any of the monad transformers we have, so it is the kind of class that lifting it too high up the import hierarchy will lead to users being forced to write orphans, when they disagree about whether, say writer (mempty, a) should be an effect or not or if you should be have instance (Monad m, Splittable m, Eq s) => Splittable (StateT s m).
* The lack of any constraints on `f` tying it to anything else in Control.Applicative gives me pause. Without any relationship to other types it is harder to specify the laws and make them feel coherent rather than bolted on.
I think the code above clearly describes the relationship.
Off the cuff, I'm currently -1 on this proposal, almost entirely because of the concern I'd have that pushing it too far up the class hierarchy actually invites a worse experience due to orphans than leaving it closer to the use site where such ambiguous cases can be resolved unilaterally by the author or ignored as irrelevant by them safely.
-Edward
On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 5:58 AM, Doaitse Swierstra
wrote: In the package uu-interleaved I introduce a new class
class Splittable f where getNonPure :: f a -> Maybe (f a)Source getPure :: f a -> Maybe aSource
which I use for splitting an applicative value into its pure and its non-pure part. This is then used in the rest of this package to define (non-ambiguous) interleaved structures (as a generalisation of permuted structures).
My feeling that this class should be better located in Control.Applicative.Alternative.
If you agree what are the steps to be taken?
Doaitse
On 01 Nov 2013, at 14:08 , Twan van Laarhoven
wrote: On 01/11/13 12:44, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Firstly, I don't see how IO is relevant here, it has neither a MonadPlus instance nor an Alternative instance.
You are right. I thought it was an instance with mzero=fail "foo" and mplus=catch. But I was apparently mistaken. Objection withdrawn.
Secondly, the MonadPlus laws are documented in Control.Monad to be:
mzero >>= f = mzero v >> mzero = mzero
I missed them, because they are written in the documentation of mzero rather than the documentation of the class where I expected them.
Thirdly, the monoid laws are already documented. (<|>) must be "An associative binary operation", and empty "The identity of <|>". These are exactly the monoid laws. Perhaps they should be made more explicit, but that is a different issue.
Missed this as well.
Fourthly, [] fulfils neither the left-distribution law or the left-catch law, and I doubt many people would be happy to lose []'s MonadPlus instance.
List does satisfy left distribution:
λ> (,) <$> ([1,2] <|> [3]) <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> (,) <$> [1,2] <*> [4,5] <|> (,) <$> [3] <*> [4,5] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)] λ> quickCheck (\x y z -> ((,) <$> (x <|> y :: [Int]) <*> (z :: [Int])) == (((,) <$> x <*> z) <|> ((,) <$> y <*> z))) +++ OK, passed 100 tests.
See also http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus. Then law which it doesn't is right distribution.
Consider Maybe. it does satisfies left catch but not left distribution for MonadPlus. Since mplus (Just False >>= guard) (Just True >>= guard) = Just () while mplus (Just False) (Just True) >>= guard = Nothing
But for Alternative, you can't have the failure of the second argument of (<*>) depend on the first. So Maybe *does* satisfy left distribution for Alternative. IMO that makes it a good candidate law.
Twan
I believe I have addressed all your issues. If I've missed something, please point it out to me.
Nathan.
On 1 November 2013 12:09, Twan van Laarhoven
mailto:twanvl@gmail.com> wrote: On 01/11/13 11:42, Nathan van Doorn wrote:
Proposal: add the following laws to the documentation of Control.Applicative.__Alternative:
* empty <*> a = empty * f <*> empty = empty
> These laws correspond to the laws given in MonadPlus- if you take mzero = > empty and ap = (<*>), the ones in MonadPlus imply these- and I don't think > this proposal should be too controversial.
As far as I can see, the documentation for MonadPlus does not specify these laws anywhere [1,2].
Consider the IO monad. These laws claim that
launchMissiles *> fail "empty" = fail "empty"
This is clearly *not* true.
--
If we add laws, I think we should first consider the much more reasonable monoid laws
identity empty <|> a = a a <|> empty = a associativity: (a <|> b) <|> c = a <|> (b <|> c)
In the MonadPlus world, the controversial part is the choice between
left distribution (f <|> g) <*> a = (f <*> a) <|> (g <*> a)
or
left catch pure a <|> b = pure a
Your proposal would be
left zero
empty <*> a = empty right zero
f <*> empty = empty
And as mentioned above, right zero is problematic. The fmap version should be okay though
map zero f <$> empty = empty
Twan
[1]
http://hackage.haskell.org/__package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/__Control-Monad.html#...
< http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/Control-Monad.html#t:Mo...
[2] http://www.haskell.org/__haskellwiki/MonadPlus http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/MonadPlus _________________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org mailto:Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/__mailman/listinfo/libraries http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries
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On 01 May 2014, at 13:19, S D Swierstra
I have probably not been clear enough. The relationship that should hold between getPure and getNonPure is as follows:
case (getPure p, genNonPure p) of (Nothing, Nothing) -> "should not happen since p should have at least a pure or a nonpure part" (Just pp, Just npp) -> pure pp <|> npp (Just np, Nothing) -> pure np (Nothing, Just npp) -> npp
is equivalent to p.
I do not see how this would correspond to your use of Either?
Doaitse
Would this then be equivalent to the following? class Alternative f => Splittable f where split :: f a -> (Maybe a, f a) isEmpty :: f a -> Bool isEmpty = isNothing . fst . split One then would have something like: getPure = fst . split getNonPure x = guard (not (isEmpty fa)) >> Just fa where fa = snd (split x) and the expected laws might be easier to state Daniel

At that point it is very close to but stronger than MonadLogic's msplit:
class MonadPlushttp://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/Control-Monad.html#t:Mo...
m
=> MonadLogic m
whereSourcehttp://hackage.haskell.org/package/logict-0.6.0.2/docs/src/Control-Monad-Log...
msplit :: m a -> m
(Maybehttp://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.6.0.1/docs/Data-Maybe.html#t:Maybe
(a,
m a))
-Edward
On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 2:01 PM, Daniel Gorín
On 01 May 2014, at 13:19, S D Swierstra
wrote: I have probably not been clear enough. The relationship that should hold between getPure and getNonPure is as follows:
case (getPure p, genNonPure p) of (Nothing, Nothing) -> "should not happen since p should have at least a pure or a nonpure part" (Just pp, Just npp) -> pure pp <|> npp (Just np, Nothing) -> pure np (Nothing, Just npp) -> npp
is equivalent to p.
I do not see how this would correspond to your use of Either?
Doaitse
Would this then be equivalent to the following?
class Alternative f => Splittable f where split :: f a -> (Maybe a, f a)
isEmpty :: f a -> Bool isEmpty = isNothing . fst . split
One then would have something like:
getPure = fst . split
getNonPure x = guard (not (isEmpty fa)) >> Just fa where fa = snd (split x)
and the expected laws might be easier to state
Daniel
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participants (9)
-
Daniel Gorín
-
Doaitse Swierstra
-
Edward Kmett
-
John Wiegley
-
S D Swierstra
-
Sjoerd Visscher
-
Tom Ellis
-
Twan van Laarhoven
-
wren romano