[Haskell-cafe] Instances of constrained datatypes

Keean Schupke k.schupke at imperial.ac.uk
Thu Apr 7 04:01:28 EDT 2005


I think it is more a problem of imlpementation than one of what is 
desirable. A Constrained data type:

 data (Eq v) => EqList v = EqList [v]

The problem is how to get the dictionary for the class Eq to the 
application site:

f :: EqList v -> EqList v
f (EqList (u0:us)) (EqList (v0:vs)) | v0 == u0 = ...

Which of course does not work... the constraint needs to be in the function
type signature:

f :: Eq v => EqList v -> EqList v

Things are worse though, as even functions that use no methods of Eq will
require the constraint.

The constraint on the data type does not stop you construction EqLists from
non Eq members... of course this gets detected the moment you try and use it
in a constrained function.


In other words using the constraint in the data type does nothing... you 
may as well just do:

f :: Eq v => [v] -> [v]


Infact I believe it was decided to remove the feature from Haskell98 
entirely, but there was apparently some use for the 'syntax' although 
with a different effect.

    Keean.

Cale Gibbard wrote:

>I don't believe you can, but it would be nice. There are certain
>types, such as Set, where it's not really possible to just remove the
>constraint from the data declaration, and yet it would be nice if sets
>could be instances of Monad and Functor. Currently, to be an instance
>of Functor or Monad, your type has to be a functor defined on the
>whole category of types.
>
>Could this issue be fixed somehow? Constrained instances would make
>various typeclass-based libraries more applicable. What would it break
>to allow instances where the types of functions defined by the
>typeclass are further restricted? I suppose that checking that types
>are correct becomes more difficult and non-local, because  functions
>which are defined using the typeclass won't already have that
>constraint for obvious reasons. Still, the constraint is in the
>instance, which must be around when the functions actually get
>applied. There are probably bad interactions with the module system,
>but I'm not certain.
>
>People must have talked about this before... was a consensus reached
>that I'm not aware of?
>
> - Cale
>
>On Apr 6, 2005 2:10 AM, Arjun Guha <guhaarju at grinnell.edu> wrote:
>  
>
>>This is a contrived example, but contains the essence of what I'd like
>>to do.  Suppose I have this datatype:
>>
>> > data (Eq v) => EqList v = EqList [v]
>>
>>I'd like to make it an instance of Functor.  However, fmap takes an
>>arbitrary function  of type a -> b.  I need an Eq constraint on a and
>>b.  Is there any way to do this without creating my own `EqFunctor'
>>class with explicitly-kinded quantification:
>>
>> > class (Eq a) => EqFunctor (f :: * -> *) a where
>> >  eqfmap:: (Eq b) => (a -> b) -> f a -> f b
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
>>-Arjun
>>    
>>



More information about the Haskell-Cafe mailing list