[Template-haskell] recover and get error message? - parsing th syntax trees

25 May 2008

      I'd like to implement a simple helper function
-- helper pasring the reify output 
thChoice :: a -> [ a -> Q r ] -> Q r
thChoice a list = thChoice' list
  where 
  thChoice' [] = fail $ "no parser did match"
  thChoice' (p:ps) = (p a) `recover` (thChoice' ps)

However there I can't get the result of why a parser has failed this
way:
thChoice :: [ a -> Q r ] -> Q r
thChoice a list = thChoice' [] list
  where 
  thChoice' errors [] = fail $ "no parser did match: error messages " ++ (show errors)
  thChoice' errors (p:ps) = (p a) `recover` \e -> (thChoice' (e:errors) ps)
                                            ^^  unfotunately recover
                                                doesn't support passing this \e

To show a nice list 
        expected either
        a) ...
        b) ...
        c) ...
        but no parser did match the passed arg
        ...

I've also tried `catchError` but there was no instance..
Is there another way handling this or should I just use 
Either Error result and 
        return . Left $
        return . Right $
or put kind of ErrorMonad on top of the Q monad myself?

My use case:
Parse different settings specified by using different types such as
UniqKey or (Key Foo ()) or relation settings

        type Tickets = Table (Autoinc, Surname, TestCase.Name)
                (Key Name (), Key Surname ())
                (Rel Inbound Flights, Rel Outbound ( Maybe Flights) )

        type <name> = Table <cols>
                            <keys>
                            <master tables>

        <keys> : the primary key field is added automatically
                example: key Foo (-> Map Foo row) 
                         double index (Foo2, Bar) (-> Map Foo2 ( Map Bar row ) ) )
                ( UniqKey Foo
                , Key Foo2 ( Key Bar () ) 
                )
        <master tables>:
          ( TableMaster
          , Rel IdType TableMaster2
          -- optional relation  (eg a ticket may have a retour, but doesn't have to have)
          , Maybe TableMaster4
          , (Rel IdType (Maybe TableMaster5))
          )

Is there alreay a library providing this kind of error reporting for
parsing haskell template syntax trees?

Marc Weber