What are Alternative's "some" and "many" useful for?

Question

Alternative, an extension of Applicative, declares empty, <|> and these two functions:

One or more:

some :: f a -> f [a]

Zero or more:

many :: f a -> f [a]

If defined, some and many should be the least solutions of the equations:

some v = (:) <$> v <*> many v

many v = some v <|> pure []

I couldn't find an instance for which some and many are defined. What is their meaning and practical use? Are they used at all? I've been unable to grasp their purpose just from this definition.

Update: I'm not asking what is Alternative, just what are some and many

Answer 1

I tend to see them in Applicative parser combinator libraries.

a :: Parser [String]
a = some (string "hello")

and I see many used for purpose in the default definitions of Parsing in parsers.

I think Parsec being the primary example of a parser combinator library hides the use of some/many since it redefines things like (<|>).