[Haskell-cafe] newbie type signature question

[Brian Hulley]

Brock Peabody wrote:
> Please excuse my newbiness, but in this snippet:
>
>
>   data (Monad m) => DataType m = DataType { f :: Char -> m () }
>
>   test_function :: (Monad m) => DataType m -> m ()
>                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>   test_function d =  f d 'C'
>
>
>
> Why is "(Monad m) =>" required, when the definition of DataType
> already implies it?  Is there an easier way to do this or will I have
> to have it in all signatures containing DataType?

This is exactly the same question I had when I started learning Haskell.
The reason is that you are explicitly giving a type annotation for 
test_function, and whenever you give a type annotation what you see is what 
you get: the compiler doesn't add any extra things to it.

If you had not given any type signature the inferred type would have been

    Monad m => DataType m -> m ()

as expected, whereas when you wrote

    test_function :: DataType m -> m ()

you are actively telling the compiler there is no context at all, but the 
compiler needs the context in this particular function in order to apply f. 
The context is not needed in all functions which use DataType - only in 
those functions which actually make use of m's Monad'ness, so you could 
write:

    test2 :: DataType m -> DataType m
    test2 x = x

(See http://haskell.org/onlinereport/decls.html#user-defined-datatypes 
section 4.2.1 for more info)

There was a post a while back (unfortunately I can't seem to locate it) 
where someone posted a link to some guidelines on haskell coding style where 
one guideline was never to use contexts in data declarations.

Regards, Brian.

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congealed in the present in unthought forms,
strive mightily unseen to destroy us.

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