[Haskell-cafe] Re: Typeable and Dynamic

[minh thu]

2008/11/4, oleg at okmij.org <oleg at okmij.org>:
>
> minh thu asked a tricky question, about writing
> > extract :: Typeable a => TypeRep -> Dynamic -> a
>
> The question here is what determines the type 'a'. One answer is that
> 'a' is determined from the context, e.g.,
>        (extract tr dyn) + 1.0
> fixes 'a' to be an Int. In that case, extract is equivalent to `read'
> (indeed, String is a primitive sort of Dynamic). We do not need any
> argument TypeRep though as we obtain 'a' from the context. fromDynamic
> is sufficient there.
>
> One can also construe the question to be asking about writing an `inverse' of
> typeOf. Whereas,
>        typeOf :: Typeable a => a -> TypeRep
> can give the TypeRep for any (Typeable) type,
>        undefinedOf :: Typeable a => TypeRep -> a
> could give (an undefined) value for a given TypeRep.

Indeed, that's what I was asking.

> Now, the _type_ 'a' is determined by the _value_ of TypeRep: seemingly we
> need dependent types. To write function of exactly that signature, we
> need Template Haskell. Oftentimes, we can get away with a weaker
> function:

I'll look at Template Haskell then. It's a bit cumbersome to add type
annotations everywhere when using Dynamic.

> > data Dyn = forall a. Typeable a => Dyn a
> > reflect :: TypeRep -> Dyn
>
> to be used to implement dynApply, dynFst, dynSnd, dynHead and other operations
> on Dynamics. Perhaps the following message may help then
>  http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/2007-December/036820.html

Thank you,
Thu