ipa-0.2: README.org

* ipa
** About
~ipa~ is a Haskell library for dealing with International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions. It provides a set of datatypes for working with speech segments and suprasegmentals which can be represented using IPA transcription.
** Usage
IPA values can be created by constructing ~Segment~ or ~Syllable~ values and applying ~toIPA~.
For instance:
#+begin_src haskell
{-# LANGUAGE PatternSynonyms #-}
{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
    
import           Language.IPA
import qualified Data.Text.IO as T

main :: IO ()                
main = maybe message (T.putStrLn . unIPA) (toIPA b)
  where
    b       = PulmonicConsonant Voiced Bilabial Plosive
    message = T.putStrLn "Invalid or unrepresentable segment!"
     
#+end_src
~Segment~ and ~Syllable~ values can be adorned with additional articulatory information as well, and can further be nested to created more complex structures, e.g.:
#+begin_src haskell
someComplexVowel :: Segment
someComplexVowel = WithSegmentalFeature 
    (SuperScriptNumeric 255)
    (WithSegmentalFeature 
     (Length OverLong)
     (WithSegmentalFeature 
      Compressed
      (Vowel Close Back Unrounded)))
-- ɯᵝːː²⁵⁵ 
   
#+end_src
~IPA~ is an instance of ~Semigroup~, so values can be concatenated with ~<>~:
#+begin_src haskell
someSyllables :: Maybe IPA
someSyllables = (<>) <$> toIPA syllable1 <*> toIPA syllable2
  where
    syllable1 =
        WithSuprasegmentalFeature Linking
                                  (Syllable [ WithSegmentalFeature 
                                              (Length Long)
                                              (Vowel Close Back Rounded)
                                            ])

    syllable2 = Syllable [ PulmonicConsonant Voiced Palatal Approximant
                         , Vowel OpenMid Front Unrounded
                         , Vowel Mid Central Unrounded
                         ]
-- uː‿jɛə                        

#+end_src
~toIPA~ is a method of the ~ReprIPA~ typeclass; I decided a typeclass was best in order to allow users to create their own instances if the library-supplied ones were insufficient. You could create an instance, for example, for a hypothetical ~Mora~ datatype, etc...
** License
This library is distributed under the BSD 3-Clause revised license.
** TODO TODO
- [ ] Export constant values for common segments
- [ ] Convenience functions for wrapping IPA values in different trasncription delimiters (phonemic, phonetic, etc...)
- [X] Support for X-SAMPA transcription
- [ ] Support for IPA <-> X-SAMPA conversion
- [ ] Parsing and validation of user-supplied IPA and XSampa literals
- [ ] Quasi quoter for making segment construction somewhat less painful