[Haskell-cafe] Re: Small displeasure with associated type synonyms

[Tom Schrijvers]

Stefan,

> I tried lexically scoped type variables, but to no avail:
>
> instance forall a b. (C a, C b) => C (a, b) where
>   type T (a, b) = (T a, T b)
>   val           = (val :: T a, val :: T b)

The problem is ambiguity. The type checker can't determine which val 
function to use, i.e. which dictionary to pass to val. Assume:

   instance C Int where
     type T Int = Int
     val        = 0

   instance C Bool where
     type T Bool = Int
     val         = 1

Now, if you want some val :: Int, which one do you get? The one of C Int 
of C Bool? Depending on the choice you may get a different result. We 
can't have that in a deterministic functional language. Hence the error.
Adding a type signature doesn't change the matter.

Providing an additional argument, as you propose, resolves the ambiguity.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Tom

--
Tom Schrijvers

Department of Computer Science
K.U. Leuven
Celestijnenlaan 200A
B-3001 Heverlee
Belgium

tel: +32 16 327544
e-mail: tom.schrijvers at cs.kuleuven.be
url: http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~toms/