dep-t-0.1.0.1: README.md

# dep-t

`DepT` is a
[ReaderT](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/mtl-2.2.2/docs/Control-Monad-Reader.html)-like
monad transformer for dependency injection.

The difference with `ReaderT` is that `DepT` takes an enviroment whose type is
parameterized by `DepT` itself.

## Rationale

To achieve dependency injection in Haskell, a common solution is to build a
record of functions and pass it to the program logic using some variant of
[`ReaderT`](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/mtl-2.2.2/docs/Control-Monad-Reader.html).

Let's start by defining some auxiliary typeclasses to extract functions from an
environment record:

    type HasLogger :: Type -> (Type -> Type) -> Constraint
    class HasLogger r m | r -> m where
      logger :: r -> String -> m ()

    type HasRepository :: Type -> (Type -> Type) -> Constraint
    class HasRepository r m | r -> m where
      repository :: r -> Int -> m ()

We see that the type of the record determines the monad in which the effects take place.

Let's define a monomorphic record with effects in `IO`:

    type EnvIO :: Type
    data EnvIO = EnvIO
      { _loggerIO :: String -> IO (),
        _repositoryIO :: Int -> IO ()
      }

    instance HasLogger EnvIO IO where
      logger = _loggerIO

    instance HasRepository EnvIO IO where
      repository = _repositoryIO

Record-of-functions-in-IO is a simple technique which works well in many
situations. There are even [specialized
libraries](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/rio) that support it.

Here's a function which obtains its dependencies from the environment record:

    mkControllerIO :: (HasLogger e IO, HasRepository e IO) => Int -> ReaderT e IO Int
    mkControllerIO x = do
      doLog <- asks logger
      liftIO $ doLog "I'm going to insert in the db!"
      insert <- asks repository
      liftIO $ insert x
      return $ x * x

That's all and well, but there are two issues that bug me:

- What if the repository function needs access to the logger, too? The
  repository lives in the environment record, but isn't aware of it. That means
  it can't use the `HasLogger` typeclass for easy and convenient dependency
  injection. Why privilege the controller in such a way?

  In a sufficiently complex app, the diverse functions that comprise it will be
  organized in a big
  [DAG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph) of dependencies.
  And it would be nice if all the functions taking part in dependency injection
  were treated uniformly; if all of them had access to (some view of) the
  environment record.

- We might want to write code that is innocent of `IO` and polymorphic over the
  monad, to ensure that the program logic can't do some unexpected missile
  launch, or to allow testing our app in a "pure" way. 

Let's parameterize our environment by a monad: 

    type Env :: (Type -> Type) -> Type
    data Env m = Env
      { _logger :: String -> m (),
        _repository :: Int -> m (),
        _controller :: Int -> m Int
      }
    -- helper from the "rank2classes" package
    $(Rank2.TH.deriveFunctor ''Env)

    instance HasLogger (Env m) m where
      logger = _logger

    instance HasRepository (Env m) m where
      repository = _repository

Notice that the controller function is now part of the environment. No
favorites here!

The following implementation of the logger function has no dependencies besides
`MonadIO`:

    mkStdoutLogger :: MonadIO m => String -> m ()
    mkStdoutLogger msg = liftIO (putStrLn msg)

But look at this implementation of the repository function. It gets hold of the
logger through `HasLogger`:

    mkStdoutRepository :: (MonadReader e m, HasLogger e m, MonadIO m) => Int -> m ()
    mkStdoutRepository entity = do
      doLog <- asks logger
      doLog "I'm going to write the entity!"
      liftIO $ print entity

And here's the controller:

    mkController :: (MonadReader e m, HasLogger e m, HasRepository e m) => Int -> m Int
    mkController x = do
      doLog <- asks logger
      doLog "I'm going to insert in the db!"
      insert <- asks repository
      insert x
      return $ x * x

Now, lets choose `IO` as the base monad and assemble an environment record:

    envIO :: Env (DepT Env IO)
    envIO =
      let _logger = mkStdoutLogger
          _repository = mkStdoutRepository
          _controller = mkController
       in Env {_logger,  _repository, _controller}

Not very complicated, except... what is that weird `DepT Env IO` doing there in
the signature? 

Well, that's the whole reason this library exists. Trying to use a `ReaderT
(Env something) IO` to parameterize `Env` won't fly; you'll get weird "infinite
type" kind of errors because the `Env` needs to be parameterized with the monad
that provides the `Env` environment. So I created the `DepT` newtype over
`ReaderT` to mollify the compiler.

## How to embed environments into other environments?

Sometimes it might be convenient to nest an environment into another one,
basically making it a field of the bigger environment:

    type BiggerEnv :: (Type -> Type) -> Type
    data BiggerEnv m = BiggerEnv
      { _inner :: Env m,
        _extra :: Int -> m Int
      }
    $(Rank2.TH.deriveFunctor ''BiggerEnv)

When constructing the bigger environment, we have to tweak the monad parameter
of the smaller one, to make the types match. This can be done with the
`zoomEnv` function:

    biggerEnvIO :: BiggerEnv (DepT BiggerEnv IO)
    biggerEnvIO =
      let _inner' = zoomEnv (Rank2.<$>) _inner envIO
          _extra = pure
       in BiggerEnv {_inner = _inner', _extra}

We need to pass as the first parameter of `zoomEnv` a function that tweaks the
monad parameter of `Env` using a natural transformation. We can write such a
function ourselves, but here we are using the function generated for us by the
[rank2classes
TH](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/rank2classes-1.4.1/docs/Rank2-TH.html#v:deriveFunctor).

## How to use "pure fakes" during testing?

The [test suite](./test/tests.hs) has an example of using a `Writer` monad for
collecting the outputs of functions working as ["test
doubles"](https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TestDouble.html).

## Invoking the functions in the environment is cumbersome

Yeah, it's annoying to perform the "ask for function, invoke function" dance each time:

    mkController x = do
      doLog <- asks logger
      doLog "I'm going to insert in the db!"

One workaround (at the cost of more boilerplate) is to define helper functions like:  

    logger' :: (MonadReader e m, HasLogger e m) => String -> m ()
    logger' msg = asks logger >>= \f -> f msg

Which you can invoke like this:

    mkController x = do
      logger' "I'm going to insert in the db!"

## Caveats

The structure of the `DepT` type might be prone to trigger a [known infelicity
of the GHC
simplifier](https://twitter.com/DiazCarrete/status/1350116413445439493).

## Links

- This library was extracted from my answer to [this Stack Overflow
  question](https://stackoverflow.com/a/61782258/1364288).

- The implementation of `mapDepT` was teased out in [this other SO question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65710657/writing-a-zooming-function-for-a-readert-like-monad-transformer).

- An [SO
  answer](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57703898/how-to-call-impure-functions-from-pure-ones/57714058#57714058)
  about records-of-functions and the "veil of polymorphism".

- I'm unsure of the relationship between `DepT` and the technique described in
  [Adventures assembling records of
  capabilities](https://discourse.haskell.org/t/adventures-assembling-records-of-capabilities/623). 

  It seems that, with `DepT`, functions in the environment obtain their
  dependencies anew every time they are invoked. If we change a function in the
  environment record, all other functions which depend on it will be affected
  in subsequent invocations. I don't think this happens with "Adventures..." at
  least when changing an already "assembled" record.