[Haskell-cafe] Rank N type tutorial?

[Ben Rudiak-Gould]

Greg Buchholz wrote:
>I'm not quite sure why this is illegal...
>
>>foo :: Integer -> (forall a. Show a => a)
>>foo 2 = ["foo"] 
>>foo x = x
>
>...while this is just fine...
>
>>bar :: Integer -> (forall a. Show a => a->b) -> b 
>>bar 2 k = k ["bar"] 
>>bar x k = k x

The way to think about it is that foralls are extra function arguments. Your 
first example is like

   foo :: Integer -> (a::Type -> Show a -> a)

so a is chosen by the caller, not by you. The second case is like

   bar :: Integer -> (a::Type -> Show a -> a -> b) -> b

In order for the first case to work as you expect, you'd need the type

   foo :: Integer -> (a::Type, Show a, a)

which is traditionally written

   foo :: Integer -> (exists a. Show a => a)

-- Ben