[Haskell] Polymorphic types in RHS of type instances

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

Can you give an example of what you'd like to write, but can't?

Simon

From: glasgow-haskell-users-bounces at haskell.org [mailto:glasgow-haskell-users-bounces at haskell.org] On Behalf Of José Pedro Magalhães
Sent: 04 April 2011 10:53
To: GHC users
Cc: Steven Keuchel
Subject: Re: [Haskell] Polymorphic types in RHS of type instances

Hi,

[Moving to glasgow-haskell-users at haskell.org<mailto:glasgow-haskell-users at haskell.org>]

I would also like to know the answer to this question. While I can imagine it has something to do with type checking/inference, it is not immediately clear to me where the problem lies.


Thanks,
Pedro
On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 12:25, Steven Keuchel <steven.keuchel at gmail.com<mailto:steven.keuchel at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi list,

I was wondering why GHC doesn't allow usage of polymorphic types in
the right-hand side of type instance declarations for type families.
The GHC user guide states: "The right-hand side of a type instance
must be a monotype (i.e., it may not include foralls) [...]", but it
doesn't state the reason.

I stumbled upon this limitation when I was trying to generically
calculate Johann's and Ghani's interpreter (transformers) for nested
data types from their "Initial Algebra Semantics is Enough!" paper.

Cheers,
Steven

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