[Haskell-beginners] forall confusion

[Philip Scott]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could give me an intuitive explanation of why in

f :: forall a.(Show a) => a -> String
f x = show x

"forall a.(Show a) => a" appears to translate into "Any a, as long as it 
is an instance of Show"

but if I use forall in an type qualifier in an assignment:

myList = [] :: [forall a.(Show a) => a]

"forall a.(Show a) => a" seems to mean "Any a, as long as it is bottom"

I've been poring over

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell/Existentially_quantified_types

for the last hour and I feel like my eyes are starting to melt.

As usual, any input would be warmly received :)

All the best,

Philip