[Haskell-beginners] accessor function scope

[Michael Mossey]

I'm coming from the OO world and trying to adapt.

I've noticed that if I declare two types like this

data Thing1 = Thing1 { itemPos :: Int }
data Thing2 = Thing2 { itemPos :: Int }

then I get the error "Multiple declarations of Main.itemPos"

However, I can successfully do this:

type Pos = ( Int, Int )
type Dimension = ( Int, Int, Int, Int )
data LayoutItem = StaffItem { itemPos :: Pos,
                               itemDim :: Dimension }
                 | TextItem { itemPos :: Pos,
                              itemDim :: Dimension }


d1 = TextItem ...
d2 = StaffItem ...
i1 = itemPos d
i2 = itemPos d2

This seems to define itemPos in a way that can sense whether it's dealing with a 
StaffItem-type LayoutItem or a TextItem-type LayoutItem. I don't know if this would 
be considered an overloaded operator. However, it does resemble derived class in OO.

For that matter, I don't know what the term is for a "StaffItem-type LayoutItem". The 
type is clearly LayoutItem. "StaffItem" is the constructor. How do you refer to the 
concept of a LayoutItem constructed via a StaffItem?

Again, StaffItem and TextItem resemble derived classes in OO.

Any clarification welcome.
-Mike