Since Name has a Show instance and strings can be used to generate a corresponding Name, I thought about using the following method:
\ name -> [e| mkName $(lift (show name)) |]
This works fine in ghci. But in compiled code, the actual compiled variables look like p_a4hEk, whereas the strings produced by Show look like p_6989586621680030942.
What is happening here? Is there a way to lift a Name into a Template Haskell ExpQ?
Use case: I am writing a TH API that can build complex and efficient Haskell functions based on human-readable user descriptions. I am attaching to the returned function a documentation that explains the purpose and type of each parameter in human readable terms. It would be nice if the documentation could also contain the Name used for that parameter in the code, so that the user can review the spliced code as needed and recognize which parameter is which.