Merge pull request #11 from anttih/add-guide

Add guide

Author: LiamGoodacre

README.md

@@ -11,6 +11,214 @@ Utilities for working with partial functions.
 bower install purescript-partial
 ```
 
-## Documentation
+## Why have a Partial type class?
 
-Module documentation is [published on Pursuit](http://pursuit.purescript.org/packages/purescript-partial).
+Every now and then, you will want to use *partial functions;* that is,
+functions which don't handle every possible case of their inputs. For example,
+there is a function `fromJust :: ∀ a. Partial ⇒ Maybe a → a` in `Data.Maybe`,
+which gives you the value inside a `Just` value, or throws an error if given
+`Nothing`.
+
+It's important that types tell the truth wherever possible, because this is a
+large part of what allows us to understand PureScript code easily and refactor
+it fearlessly.  However, in certain contexts, you know that e.g. an `Either`
+value is always going to be `Right`, but you can't prove that to the type
+checker, and so you want an escape hatch so that you can write a function that
+doesn't have to deal with the `Left` case. This is often the case when
+performance is important, for instance.
+
+Previously, partial functions have been indicated by putting the word "unsafe"
+at the start of their names, or by putting them in an "Unsafe" module. For
+instance, there was previously an `unsafeIndex` function in
+`Data.Array.Unsafe`, and `fromJust` used to be in `Data.Maybe.Unsafe`. However,
+this is not ideal, because the fact that these functions are partial, and
+therefore unsafe if used carelessly, does not appear in the type. Consequently,
+there is little to stop you from using it in an inappropriate manner by
+accident.
+
+The Partial type class allows us to put this information back into the types,
+and thereby allows us to clearly demarcate which parts of your code are
+responsible for making that sure unsafe functions are used in a safe manner.
+
+## I just want to use a partial function, please
+
+If you try to just use a partial function, you'll most likely get an error
+about no instance being found for the `Partial` class. Take this program, for
+instance:
+
+```purescript
+module Main where
+
+import Prelude
+import Data.Maybe (Maybe(..), fromJust)
+import Effect (Effect)
+import Effect.Console (logShow)
+
+main :: Effect Unit
+main = logShow (fromJust (Just 3))
+```
+
+Because `fromJust` is partial, and because the partiality hasn't been
+explicitly handled, you'll get an error:
+
+```
+at src/Main.purs line 8, column 1 - line 8, column 56
+
+  No type class instance was found for
+
+    Prim.Partial
+```
+
+*Aside: Yes, this is not a fantastic error. It's going to get better soon.*
+
+The solution is usually to add an application of `unsafePartial` somewhere,
+like this:
+
+```purescript
+module Main where
+
+import Prelude
+import Data.Maybe (Maybe(..), fromJust)
+import Effect (Effect)
+import Effect.Console (logShow)
+import Partial.Unsafe (unsafePartial)
+
+main :: Effect Unit
+main = logShow (unsafePartial (fromJust (Just 3)))
+```
+
+## Where should I put unsafePartial?
+
+The rule of thumb is to put `unsafePartial` at the level of your program such
+that the types tell the truth, and the part of your program responsible for
+making sure a use of a partial function is safe is also the part where the
+`unsafePartial` is. This is perhaps best demonstrated with an example.
+
+Imagine that we want to represent vectors in 3D with an array containing
+exactly 3 values (perhaps we want to use them with some other API that expects
+this representation, and we don't want to be converting back and forth all the
+time). In this case, we would usually use a `newtype` and avoid exporting the
+constructor:
+
+```purescript
+module Data.V3
+  ( V3()
+  , makeV3
+  , runV3
+  ) where
+
+newtype V3 = V3 (Array Number)
+
+makeV3 :: Number -> Number -> Number -> V3
+makeV3 x y z = V3 [x, y, z]
+
+runV3 :: V3 -> Array Number
+runV3 (V3 v) = v
+```
+
+This way, all of the functions are safe; the code will guarantee that any `V3`
+does contain exactly 3 values (although the type checker is not aware of this).
+
+Now imagine we want to write a dot product function:
+
+```purescript
+dot :: V3 -> V3 -> Number
+dot (V3 [x1, x2, x3]) (V3 [y1, y2, y3]) = x1*y1 + x2*y2 + x3*y3
+```
+
+We know this is ok, but the compiler disallows it:
+
+```
+A case expression could not be determined to cover all inputs.
+The following additional cases are required to cover all inputs:
+
+  (V3 _) _
+  _      (V3 _)
+
+Alternatively, add a Partial constraint to the type of the enclosing value.
+
+in value declaration dot
+```
+
+In this case, we can use `unsafePartial` to explicitly say that we don't
+actually need to worry about those other cases, and therefore we don't want to
+propagate a `Partial` constraint; users of this `dot` function should not have
+to worry about this partiality. For example:
+
+```purescript
+dot :: V3 -> V3 -> Number
+dot x y = Partial.Unsafe.unsafePartial (go x y)
+  where
+  go :: Partial => V3 -> V3 -> Number
+  go (V3 [x1, x2, x3]) (V3 [y1, y2, y3]) = x1*y1 + x2*y2 + x3*y3
+  -- This second pattern can be omitted, but provides a better error message
+  -- in case we do get an invalid argument at runtime.
+  go _ _ = Partial.crash "Bad argument: expected exactly 3 elements."
+```
+
+The `unsafePartial` function comes from the `Partial.Unsafe` module, in the
+`purescript-partial` package.
+
+In this case, we could also use `Partial.Unsafe.unsafeCrashWith`:
+
+```purescript
+dot :: V3 -> V3 -> Number
+dot (V3 [x1, x2, x3]) (V3 [y1, y2, y3]) = x1*y1 + x2*y2 + x3*y3
+dot _ _ = unsafeCrashWith "Bad argument: expected exactly 3 elements."
+```
+
+Both implementations will behave in the same way.
+
+In this case, we know our `dot` implementation is fine, and so users of it
+should not have to worry about its partiality, so it makes sense to avoid
+propagating the constraint. Now, we will see another case where a `Partial`
+constraint *should* be propagated.
+
+Let us suppose we want a `foldr1` function, which works in a very similar way
+to `foldr` on Lists, except that it doesn't require an initial value to be
+passed, and instead requires that the list argument contains at least one
+element.
+
+We can implement it like this:
+
+```purescript
+foldr1 f (Cons x xs) = foldr f x xs
+```
+
+The compiler infers the correct type here, which is:
+
+```purescript
+foldr1 :: forall a. Partial => (a -> a -> a) -> List a -> a
+```
+
+Now imagine we want a version of `Data.Foldable.minimum` which returns an `a`
+instead of a `Maybe a`, and is therefore partial. We can implement it in terms
+of our new `foldr1` function:
+
+```purescript
+minimumP = foldr1 min
+```
+
+Again, the compiler infers the correct type:
+
+```purescript
+minimumP :: forall a. (Partial, Ord a) => List a -> a
+```
+
+Notice that the `Partial` constraint is automatically propagated to the
+`minimumP` function because of the use of another partial function in its
+definition, namely `foldr1`. In this case, this is what we want; we should
+propagate the `Partial` constraint, because it is still the caller's
+responsibility to make sure they supply a non-empty list.
+
+So hopefully it is now clear why this partiality checking is implemented in
+terms of a type class: it allows us to elegantly reuse existing machinery in
+the type checker in order to check that a Partial constraint is either
+explictly handled or propagated. This should help ensure that when you're
+reading the code a few months later, it remains clear which part of the code is
+responsible for ensuring that any assumed invariants which cannot be encoded in
+the type system do hold.
+
+## API Documentation
+
+* API documentation is [published on Pursuit](http://pursuit.purescript.org/packages/purescript-partial).

src/Partial.purs

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
--- | Some partial helper functions.
-module Partial 
+-- | Some partial helper functions. See the README for more documentation.
+module Partial
   ( crash
   , crashWith
   ) where

src/Partial/Unsafe.purs

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 -- | Utilities for working with partial functions.
+-- | See the README for more documentation.
 module Partial.Unsafe
   ( unsafePartial
   , unsafePartialBecause