@InProceedings{Tullsen:PADL2000,
  author =	 "Mark Tullsen",
  year =	 "2000",
  month =	 jan,
  title =	 "First Class Patterns",
  booktitle =	 "Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages,
                  Second International Workshop, PADL 2000",
  editor =	 "E. Pontelli and V. Santos Costa",
  publisher =	 "Springer-Verlag",
  series =	 "Lecture Notes in Computer Science",
  volume =	 "1753",
  pages =	 "1-15",
  abstract =     "Pattern matching is a great convenience in
                  programming. However, pattern matching has its
                  problems: it conflicts with data abstraction; it is
                  complex (at least in Haskell, which has pattern
                  guards, irrefutable patterns, n+k patterns, as
                  patterns, etc.); it is a source of run-time errors;
                  and lastly, one cannot abstract over patterns as
                  they are not a first class language construct.This
                  paper proposes a simplification of pattern matching
                  that makes patterns first class. The key idea is to
                  treat patterns as functions of type ``a -> Maybe b''
                  ---i.e., ``a -> (Nothing|Just b)''; thus, patterns 
                  and pattern combinators can be written as functions 
                  in the language.",
}