[Haskell-cafe] Newbie Question on type constructors
Brian Beckman
bbeckman at exchange.microsoft.com
Fri Oct 29 18:08:34 EDT 2004
This is a tiny question on the "data" syntax.
Consider the following (cribbed from Paul Hudak's "School of Expression"
book, page 22):
data Shape = Circle Float
| Square Float
I read this something along the lines of "'Shape' is a type constructor,
for use in other type-defining expressions, and 'Circle' and 'Sqare' are
its two data constructors, which should be used like functions of type
'Float -> Shape'". Indeed, typing "Circle" at the Hugs prompt reveals
that Haskell has a "function" named "Circle" with type "Float -> Shape."
However, I don't know of other circumstances where (1) I can declare
functions with capitalized names (Hugs groans about syntax errors if I
attempt the following:
Circle2 :: Float -> Shape
Circle2 = Circle
And (2) where the argument-types of a function can be declared on the
function's right-hand side.
So, in some sense, am I right to think of "data" as a special syntax for
special kinds of function declarations, namely data-constructor function
declarations, and that this syntax is different in appearance, but not
terribly different in meaning, from the ordinary syntax, typified by
circle2 :: Float -> Shape
circle2 = Circle
(this is just the uncialized version of the one above, and is perfectly
legal)
Apologies if this is just too nitpicky and pedantic for words, but I try
to notice everything.
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