[Haskell-cafe] newbie type signature question

[Brian Hulley]

Brock Peabody wrote:
>> Brian Hulley wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> I would love to see that guideline.  What is the correct way to
> express a constraint for a data declaration if this way is wrong?

It is at 
http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/agbkb/forschung/formal_methods/CoFI/hets/src-distribution/daily/HetCATS/docs/Programming-Guidelines.txt 
in the section under "Types":

  "Don't put class constraints on a data type,
   constraints belong only to the functions
   that manipulate the data."

So according to this guideline you're not supposed to think of associating 
contraints with data: constraints are only relevant for functions which 
manipulate the data, therefore (if you agree with this view) the very idea 
of associating constraints with data is wrong.

It is possible that this feature was added to the language for the benefit 
of people who prefer not to use explicit type signatures but afaiu this goes 
against best practice where everything should always have an explicit 
signature to make code easy to understand and facilitate debugging of type 
errors.

Of course this does not apply to the completely different use of constraints 
when defining existential types.

Regards, Brian.

-- 
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Yet still phantoms restless for eras long past,
congealed in the present in unthought forms,
strive mightily unseen to destroy us.

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