Idiom brackets via source plugin

Today I experimented with upcoming GHC-8.6 feature: Source Plugins. In GHC 8.6 plugin functionality is extended, so there are more hooks where we can add own processing of the AST: after parsing, renaming or type-checking. For idiom brackets we'll change the AST right after the parsing step.

Idiom brackets (introduced in Applicative programming with effects paper) is a syntax extension to write Applicative expressions without drowning into <*>. The Strathclyde Haskell Enhancement also supports idiom brackets, but with different syntax. The point my plugin tries to solve: a lot of preprocessors can be built using GHC for the boring parts (like parsing).

As nobody (?) writes their lists as ([1, 2, 3]), we can steal that syntax! (Note: I don't know how to ignore, or lift pure values, ideas welcome)

{-# OPTIONS -fplugin=IdiomsPlugin #-}
-- | Hack idiom-brackets using Source Plugin.
--
module Main (main) where

main :: IO ()
main = do
    -- Just "foobar"
    print ([ mappend (Just "foo") (Just "bar") ])
    -- Nothing
    print ([ const (Just "foo") Nothing ])
    -- Just 3
    print ([ (+) (Just 1) (Just (2 :: Int)) ])

    -- Just True
    print ([ Just True || Just False ])

    -- [1,2,3], because `pure 1` can be specialised to [1]
    -- and non singleton lists are not transformed
    print $ ([ 1 ]) ++ ([2, 3]) ++ ([])

#Implementation

The implementation is on GitHub: https://github.com/phadej/idioms-plugins

It's not complicated, little over hundred lines right now. Some highlights:

• Scrap Your Boilerplate let us transform only the matching intersting nodes of AST by

  transform = SYB.everywhereM (SYB.mkM transform') where
      transform' :: LHsExpr GhcPs -> GHC.Hsc (LHsExpr GhcPs)
      transform' ... = ...

• We can print legin looking warnings by

  dflags <- GHC.getDynFlags
  liftIO $ GHC.putLogMsg
      dflags GHC.NoReason Err.SevWarning l (GHC.defaultErrStyle dflags) 
      $ text "expression" <+> ppr x <+> text "looks weird"

  where pretty-printing combinators are defined in Outputable module. And more generally, a lot of things can be converted to String with showPpr dflags theThing (not Show).

I invite you to look through the implementation, think about what else Source Plugins can be used for, and implementing those ideas!

Please ask me questions (e.g. on twitter I'm @phadej), if I cannot answer them myself, I'll find someone who can!

• 2024-04-18 – What makes a good compiler warning?
• 2024-04-12 – Core Inspection
• 2024-04-01 – Implicit arguments
• 2024-03-17 – ST with an early exit
• 2024-02-27 – More QualifiedDo examples

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