REPL

1. Allows writing e.g. functionOf do ... instead of functionOf $ do.
2. void is a convenient function, which turns IO a to IO (). Used here because we don't care about the output of the repl, and in fact that output is never reached, because the repl runs a loop indefinitely.
3. forever takes a value of type m X (where m has a Monad constraint on it) and loops it: forever mX = mX >> forever mX. It's a clean way to write a for-loop.
4. Get a line from the user.
5. Parse the user's input, using parse from the Parser module.
6. Get the current state of the board.
7. hiding is convenient for avoiding namespace conflicts.
8. pure is like return, but only requires the Applicative typeclass. It can be used almost everywhere that return is used, but is strictly more general, because a Monad constraint implies an Applicative constraint.
9. catchError, here used in infix form, stops an error percolating to the top level. This is useful here, because an uncaught error would halt main, and so exit the repl.
10. Neither return nor pure is a keyword, and a block of do-notation does not need to end with it. All that is needed at the end of the "do-block" is a value of type m a (for the monad m in question), and displayLine result has that type.
11. catchError chooses what to do with the error it catches, and one option is to throw it again. It does this for errors including Exit, in order to exit the repl on ":q".
12. runReplWithBoard is the function responsible for "unpacking" the monadic value into something simpler. This is sometimes referred to as "running the side effects" of a program.
13. flip is a useful function that takes a function of type X -> Y -> Z and flips the argument order to give a function of type Y -> X -> Z. It is often useful when writing in pointfree style.
14. It is often useful to lift the type IO X to the more abstract MonadIO m => m X, which is what liftIO does.

Analysis

This module is responsible for producing the actual runnable program (of type IO ()) that wraps up the whole system.

main

originalwithout foreverwithout void

main :: IO ()
main =
void $ -- (2)!
    runReplWithBoard $
    displayLine "Welcome!\n\n" >> forever do -- (3)!

        line <- requestLine "> " -- (4)!
        let instruction = parse line -- (5)!
        board <- get -- (6)!
        result <-
        case instruction of
            Left (ParseError err) -> pure err -- (8)!
            Left (ReplError err) -> pure err
            Right instr -> evaluate instr
            `catchError` ( \case -- (9)!
                            ReplError txt -> pure txt
                            err -> throwError err -- (11)!
                        )

        displayLine result -- (10)!

main :: IO ()
main =
    runReplWithBoard $
    displayLine "Welcome!\n\n" >> loop where 

        loop = do -- (3)!

        line <- requestLine "> " -- (4)!
        let instruction = parse line -- (5)!
        board <- get -- (6)!
        result <-
            case instruction of
            Left (ParseError err) -> pure err -- (8)!
            Left (ReplError err) -> pure err
            Right instr -> evaluate instr
                `catchError` ( \case -- (9)!
                                ReplError txt -> pure txt
                                err -> throwError err -- (11)!
                            )

        displayLine result -- (10)!
        loop

main :: IO ()
main = do
    runReplWithBoard $
        displayLine "Welcome!\n\n" >> forever do -- (3)!

            line <- requestLine "> " -- (4)!
            let instruction = parse line -- (5)!
            board <- get -- (6)!
            result <-
            case instruction of
                Left (ParseError err) -> pure err -- (8)!
                Left (ReplError err) -> pure err
                Right instr -> evaluate instr
                `catchError` ( \case -- (9)!
                                ReplError txt -> pure txt
                                err -> throwError err -- (11)!
                            )

            displayLine result -- (10)!
    pure ()

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Last update: January 17, 2023
Created: January 8, 2023