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Title:
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TOWARDS PROGRAMMING WITH FIRST-CLASS
PATTERNS |
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Author(s):
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Lutz Hamel, Timothy Colaneri, Ariel Finkle and Oliver McLaughlin |
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ISBN:
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978-989-8704-34-4 |
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Editors:
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Pedro Isaías and Hans Weghorn |
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Year:
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2021 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Type:
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Full |
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First Page:
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241 |
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Last Page:
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244 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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Pattern matching is a powerful programming paradigm which first appeared in functional programming languages to
make data structure analysis and decomposition more declarative. Promoting patterns to first-class status does not
increase the computational power of a programming language, but it does increase its expressiveness allowing for brand
new ways of solving problems. First-class patterns were studied in the context of the lambda calculus. Today, almost all
modern programming languages incorporate some form of pattern matching. However, with only a few exceptions, all
programming languages we are aware of that support pattern matching stop short of treating patterns as first-class
citizens. Consequently, many interesting use cases of pattern matching lie beyond the reach of those languages. We have
implemented first-class patterns in Asteroid, a dynamically typed, multi-paradigm programming language, in order to
assess and experiment with first-class patterns. Here we report some of our initial findings. The idea of first-class patterns
is not new but we feel that the insights provided here are novel and highlight the impact that first-class patterns can have
on programming languages and the discipline of programming itself. |
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