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First Class Patterns (2000)
| Venue: | In 2nd International Workshop on Practial Aspects of Declarative Languages, volume 1753 of LNCS |
| Citations: | 23 - 1 self |
BibTeX
@INPROCEEDINGS{Tullsen00firstclass,
author = {Mark Tullsen},
title = {First Class Patterns},
booktitle = {In 2nd International Workshop on Practial Aspects of Declarative Languages, volume 1753 of LNCS},
year = {2000},
pages = {1--15},
publisher = {Springer-Verlag}
}
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Abstract
. Pattern matching is a great convenience in programming. However, pattern matching has its problems: it conicts with data abstraction; it is complex (at least in Haskell, which has pattern guards, irrefutable patterns, n+k patterns, as patterns, etc.); it is a source of runtime errors; and lastly, one cannot abstract over patterns as they are not a rst class language construct. This paper proposes a simplication of pattern matching that makes patterns rst class. The key idea is to treat patterns as functions of type a!Maybe bi.e., a!(Nothing|Just b); thus, patterns and pattern combinators can be written as functions in the language. 1 Introduction A hotly debated issue in the language Haskell [HJW92] has been patterns. What are their semantics? Do we want n+1 patterns? Do we need @-patterns? When do we match lazily and when do we match strictly? Do we need to extend patterns with pattern guards? And etc. In this paper I will propose, not another extension, but a simplicat...
