[Haskell-cafe] Function signatures and type class constraints

[Daniel Fischer]

On Wednesday 25 August 2010 18:59:26, Oscar Finnsson wrote:
> Thanks for the tip. You saved my day (and code)!
>
> So what is the point of having the constraint on the left side of the
> '='?

I don't really know. What it does is preventing users from constructing 
values with arguments whose types don't satisfy the constraints.
That probably seemed more useful before the experience than it really is.

Says the report:
http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/haskell2010/haskellch4.html#x10-680004.2

"For example, the declaration
  data Eq a => Set a = NilSet | ConsSet a (Set a)

introduces a type constructor Set of kind ∗→∗, and constructors NilSet and 
ConsSet with types
NilSet ::  ∀ a.  Set  a
ConsSet ::  ∀ a.  Eq   a  ⇒  a  →  Set   a  →  Set   a
In the example given, the overloaded type for ConsSet ensures that ConsSet 
can only be applied to values whose type is an instance of the class Eq. 
Pattern matching against ConsSet also gives rise to an Eq a constraint. For 
example:
  f (ConsSet a s) = a

the function f has inferred type Eq a => Set a -> a. The context in the 
data declaration has no other effect whatsoever."

ghci> case (NilSet :: Set (Int -> Bool)) of { NilSet -> True; _ -> False }
True

Note that the constraint doesn't apply to NilSet, because that constructor 
has no arguments (how the context on the data declaration is mapped to type 
class constraints on the constructors is explained in the report).

> Will it allow me to do anything that the right-side constraint
> won't?
>

Nothing useful, as far as I know.