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  • Gergő Érdi's avatar
    Implement pattern synonyms · 4f8369bf
    Gergő Érdi authored
    This patch implements Pattern Synonyms (enabled by -XPatternSynonyms),
    allowing y ou to assign names to a pattern and abstract over it.
    
    The rundown is this:
    
      * Named patterns are introduced by the new 'pattern' keyword, and can
        be either *unidirectional* or *bidirectional*. A unidirectional
        pattern is, in the simplest sense, simply an 'alias' for a pattern,
        where the LHS may mention variables to occur in the RHS. A
        bidirectional pattern synonym occurs when a pattern may also be used
        in expression context.
    
      * Unidirectional patterns are declared like thus:
    
            pattern P x <- x:_
    
        The synonym 'P' may only occur in a pattern context:
    
            foo :: [Int] -> Maybe Int
            foo (P x) = Just x
            foo _     = Nothing
    
      * Bidirectional patterns are declared like thus:
    
            pattern P x y = [x, y]
    
        Here, P may not only occur as a pattern, but also as an expression
        when given values for 'x' and 'y', i.e.
    
            bar :: Int -> [Int]
            bar x = P x 10
    
      * Patterns can't yet have their own type signatures; signatures are inferred.
    
      * Pattern synonyms may not be recursive, c.f. type synonyms.
    
      * Pattern synonyms are also exported/imported using the 'pattern'
        keyword in an import/export decl, i.e.
    
            module Foo (pattern Bar) where ...
    
        Note that pattern synonyms share the namespace of constructors, so
        this disambiguation is required as a there may also be a 'Bar'
        type in scope as well as the 'Bar' pattern.
    
      * The semantics of a pattern synonym differ slightly from a typical
        pattern: when using a synonym, the pattern itself is matched,
        followed by all the arguments. This means that the strictness
        differs slightly:
    
            pattern P x y <- [x, y]
    
            f (P True True) = True
            f _             = False
    
            g [True, True] = True
            g _            = False
    
        In the example, while `g (False:undefined)` evaluates to False,
        `f (False:undefined)` results in undefined as both `x` and `y`
        arguments are matched to `True`.
    
    For more information, see the wiki:
    
        https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/PatternSynonyms
        https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/PatternSynonyms/Implementation
    
    
    
    Reviewed-by: default avatarSimon Peyton Jones <simonpj@microsoft.com>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarAustin Seipp <austin@well-typed.com>
    4f8369bf