[Haskell-cafe] ANN: Buster 0.99.1, a library for application orchestration that is not FRP

[Jules Bean]

Jeff Heard wrote:
> It is parametrically polymorphic in a.  And no, it's an arbitrary
> decision, BUT...  it allows me and other users to define generally
> useful behaviours and widgets to package with the library using the
> basic types without locking down 'a'.  The EventData type looks like
> this:
> 
> data Event a { ..., edata :: EData a, ... }
> 
> data EData a = EChar Char
>   | EString String
>   | EStringL [String]
>   | EByteString ByteString
>   | EByteStringL [ByteString]
>   | EInt Int
>   | EIntL [Int]
>   | EDouble Double
>   | EDoubleL [Double]
>   | EBool Bool
>   | EBoolL [Bool]
>   | EOther a
>   | EOtherL [a]

Maybe I wasn't clear, and probably I'm being dense. I understand what 
you've done - I looked at the type declarations before commenting - but 
I don't understand why.

Why is it useful to be able to use basic types without locking down 'a'?

Why is it useful to have a value of type "Event FooBar" which, in 
apparent defiance of the FooBar parameter, actually contains a value of 
type Double?

Jules