[Haskell-cafe] Multi-parameter type class woes

[Christopher Lane Hinson]

I'll take a swing at this one:

instance Container (Maybe x) [x] where
     wrapper = isNothing
     . . .

That isn't a sensible definition of 'wrapper', but I believe without 
trying to compile it is completely legal.  Which wrapper do you use?

You /don't/ have a different matching Container instance, but without the 
functional dependency you /might/, and ghc barfs.

--L

On Sun, 14 Dec 2008, Mario Bla?evi? wrote:

> I have, for a change, a relatively simple problem with type classes. Can somebody explain to me, or point me to an explanation of the behaviour I see?
>
> Here is a short and useless example:
>
>  {-# LANGUAGE MultiParamTypeClasses, FlexibleInstances #-}
>
>   import Data.Maybe
>
>   class Container x y where
>      wrapper :: x -> Bool
>      unwrap :: x -> y
>      rewrap :: y -> x
>
>   liftWrap :: Container x y => (y -> y) -> (x -> x)
>   liftWrap f x = (if wrapper x then rewrap . f . unwrap else id) x
>
>   instance Container (Maybe x) x where
>      wrapper = isJust
>      unwrap = fromJust
>      rewrap = Just
>
>   main = print (liftWrap (succ :: Int -> Int) (Just 1 :: Maybe Int))
>
> GHC 6.10.1 refuses to typecheck the 'wrapper' function in definition of 'liftWrap', with the following error message:
>
>    Could not deduce (Container x y) from the context (Container x y1)
>      arising from a use of `wrapper' at Test.hs:11:22-30
>    Possible fix:
>      add (Container x y) to the context of
>        the type signature for `liftWrap'
>    In the expression: wrapper x
>    In the expression:
>        (if wrapper x then rewrap . f . unwrap else id) x
>    In the definition of `liftWrap':
>        liftWrap f x = (if wrapper x then rewrap . f . unwrap else id) x
>
> Let me clarify that I'm aware that in this particular example a functional dependecy should be used. Also, I can think of a few workarounds for my actual problem, so I'm not asking for any solutions. I'm looking for an explanation. It bugs me that my intuition of how this type class should have worked is completely wrong. The error message does not help, to put it mildly. Where should I go, what should I read?
>
>
>
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