smash: Combinators for Maybe types

This package consists of 3 datatypes: Wedge, Can, and Smash.

You can imagine these three types as Maybe (Either a b), Maybe (Either a (Either b (a,b)), and Maybe (These a b) respectively. It turns out that that each of these datatypes has spcial properties:

• the Wedge datatype represents the coproduct (like, Either) in the category Hask* of pointed Hask types, called a wedge sum. One can derive this by noting that units are the same in Haskell, and the sum of two pointed types is (1 + a) + (1 + b) ~ 1 + a + b ~ Wedge a b.

• the Can datatype represents the product (like, (,)) in Hask*. You can derive this by considering the product of two pointed types (1 + a) * (1 + b) ~ 1 + a + b + a*b ~ Can a b.

• the Smash datatype represents a special type of product, a smash product, in the category Hask*. The smash product is a symmetric, monoidal tensor in Hask* that plays nicely with the product, ‘Can’, and coproduct, ‘Wedge’.

Pictorially, these datatypes look like this:

'Can':
        a
        |
Non +---+---+ (a,b)
        |
        b

'Wedge':
                a
                |
Nowhere +-------+
                |
                b


'Smash':


Nada +--------+ (a,b)