human-text-0.1.0.0: A lawless typeclass for converting values to human-friendly text.

Safe HaskellSafe
LanguageHaskell2010

Data.Text.Human

Contents

Description

I find it particularly embarrassing when details of a programming language leak into a user interface, like when you see the word undefined appear in a web application. Statically typed languages are not entirely immune to this sort of bug. In Haskell it's easy to make this mistake when you use show.

For example, let's say we're showing an integer i:

let i = 5 :: Integer
displayInTheUI ("The number is " <> Text.pack (show i))

and we later refactor the code such that i is now optional:

let i = Just 5 :: Maybe Integer
displayInTheUI ("The number is " <> Text.pack (show i))

We've forgotten to update what we show the user, but unfortunately it still compiles, our user sees the text "Just 5", and their illusion that we can write flawless code in Haskell is shattered.

Instead we should ensure we're showing them human text:

let i = 5 :: Integer
displayInTheUI ("The number is " <> humanText i)

and this does not compile:

let i = Just 5 :: Maybe Integer
displayInTheUI ("The number is " <> humanText i)

Synopsis

The HumanText class

class HumanText a where Source #

An entirely unprincipled class for things which can be converted to text that might be suitable to show to a human user.

Minimal complete definition

humanText

Methods

humanText :: a -> Text Source #

Convert a value to some text suitable for displaying to a person. The output should probably not include Haskell or JSON or any other nerd shit.

Instances

Instances

Numbers

The integer types have HumanText instances. The floating-point numbers don't, because 0.1 + 0.2 = 0.30000000000000004 isn't human-friendly.

Either

If a and b both have human text representations, then the human text for Either a b is simply humanText a or humanText b. Note that the output won't necessarily reflect whether the value was Left or Right.