[Haskell-cafe] What is a rigid type variable?

[Ryan Ingram]

To answer the question in the subject:

>From "Simple unification-based type inference for GADTs",
Peyton-Jones, et al.  ICFP 2006.
http://research.microsoft.com/users/simonpj/papers/gadt/

"Instead of "user-specified type", we use the briefer term rigid
type to describe a type that is completely specified, in some
direct fashion, by a programmer-supplied type annotation."

So a rigid type is any type specified by a programmer type signature.
All other types are "wobbly".

Does anyone know what is going to change about the terminology with
the new "boxy types" paper?
http://research.microsoft.com/users/simonpj/papers/boxy/

  -- ryan

  -- ryan

On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 8:26 PM, Xiao-Yong Jin <xj2106 at columbia.edu> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm writing a short function as follows, but I'm not able to
> find a suitable type signature for `go'.  It uses
> Numeric.LinearAlgebra from hmatrix.
>
>
> -- | Map each element in a vector to vectors and thus form a matrix
> -- | row by row
> mapVecToMat :: (Element a, Element b) =>
>               (a -> Vector b) -> Vector a -> Matrix b
> mapVecToMat f v = fromRows $ go (d - 1) []
>    where
>      d = dim v
>      go :: Element b => Int -> [Vector b] -> [Vector b]
>      go 0 vs = f (v @> 0) : vs
>      go !j !vs = go (j - 1) (f (v @> j) : vs)
>
>
> If I give the type signature to go as this, I got the
> following error
>
>    Couldn't match expected type `b1' against inferred type `b'
>      `b1' is a rigid type variable bound by
>           the type signature for `go' at test.hs:36:20
>      `b' is a rigid type variable bound by
>          the type signature for `mapVecToMat' at test.hs:31:35
>      Expected type: Vector b1
>      Inferred type: Vector b
>    In the first argument of `(:)', namely `f (v @> 0)'
>    In the expression: f (v @> 0) : vs
>
> So what is this rigid type variable all about and what is
> correct type of the function `go'?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> X-Y
> --
>    c/*    __o/*
>    <\     * (__
>    */\      <
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