[Haskell-cafe] Re: Modelling a mutable variable store

[Kannan Goundan]

On Sat, 01 Dec 2007 21:22:53 -0600, Derek Elkins wrote:

> Use ST.  First-class state isn't too great unless you specifically want
> that.

I did try using ST but ran into a problem because its type variable (s) 
ended up invading all of my types.

  -- Target needs 's' because of the STRef
  data Target s = TValue Value
                | TVar (STRef s (Maybe Value))

  -- Env needs 's' because Target needs 's'
  type Env s = Map Ident (Target s)
  
  -- Value needs 's' because closures are values and closures
  -- have an Env.
  data Value s = VUnit
               | VClosure (Env s) Ident Expr

The main thing I didn't like was that 'Value' had a type parameter.  I 
didn't follow the ST option much past this point.  But maybe there's a 
better way to use ST?  Will existential types help me?

- Kannan