[Haskell-cafe] How to present the commonness of some objects?

[Ross Mellgren]

Wordy (and yet technically accurate) names aside, isn't this basically  
the same thing, except that you must pass the dictionary around by hand?

What is the advantage of doing the dictionary passing manually, other  
than being able to avoid the scoping issue (that requires case) and  
the slightly odd syntax?

I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, I'm just curious on your  
opinion.

To expand your example, would you suggest something like:

data Widget = Widget { widgetRun :: IO () }

data Label = Label (String -> IO ())
data Button = Button (IO ())

labelToWidget = Widget runLabel
buttonToWidget = Widget runButton

widgetList :: [(Integer, Integer, Widget)]
widgetList = [labelToWidget myLabel, buttonToWidget myButton]

?

Regarding downcasting, you'd have to use Data.Dynamic or Data.Typeable  
right?

-Ross



On Jul 3, 2009, at 3:08 AM, Luke Palmer wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 8:32 PM, Magicloud Magiclouds <magicloud.magiclouds at gmail.com 
> > wrote:
> Wow, this complex.... Thank you. I will try that.
>
> No, don't!  There is an easier way.
>
> Don't use a class, just use a record.
>
> I would translate your class as:
>
> data Widget = Widget {
>     widgetRun :: IO ()
> }
>
> If you need more capabilities, add them as fields in this record.   
> There is no need for typeclasses here.
>
> Keep in mind that with this solution *and* with the  
> ExistentialQuantification solution, there is no possibility of  
> downcasting.  I.e. if you were planning on making a GraphicalWidget  
> subclass, and them somewhere seeing if a a Widget is actually a  
> GraphicalWidget, you will be disappointed.  The solution in this  
> case is to redesign your software not to need downcasting.  This is  
> the point at which you are forced to move away from OO thinking.
>
> Luke
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 12:24 PM, Ross Mellgren<rmm-haskell at z.odi.ac>  
> wrote:
> > You have a couple problems here.
> >
> > The first is that GHC has no idea what particular type 'w'  
> widgetList has,
> > because the empty list is polymorphic.
> >
> > The second is that it looks like you probably want a heterogeneous  
> list of
> > widgets -- that is, possibly different types of widget as long as  
> they all
> > conform to Widget. To do this you'll need  
> ExistentialQuantification (or
> > GADTs I guess?).
> >
> > For example:
> >
> > {-# LANGUAGE ExistentialQuantification #-}
> >
> > class Widget w where
> >    widgetRun :: w -> IO ()
> >
> > data SomeWidget = forall w. Widget w => SomeWidget w
> >
> > widgetList :: [(Integer, Integer, SomeWidget)]
> > widgetList = []
> >
> > main = mapM aux widgetList
> >    aux (x, y, sw) =
> >        case sw of
> >            SomeWidget w -> widgetRun w
> >
> > Note that the type variable for widgetList 'w' has disappeared.  
> Before, with
> > the type variable 'w', all elements of the widgetList had to be of  
> the same
> > type (lists being homogeneous). By wrapping up the type variable  
> 'w' inside
> > SomeWidget, you can now have whatever types of widgets in that  
> SomeWidget,
> > e.g.
> >
> > data Button = Button (IO ())
> > instance Widget Button where widgetRun = ...
> >
> > data Label = Label (String -> IO ())
> > instance Widget Label where widgetRun = ...
> >
> > widgetList:: [(Integer, Integer, SomeWidget)]
> > widgetList =
> >    [ SomeWidget (Button $ putStrLn "ding!")
> >    , SomeWidget (Label $ putStrLn . ("entered: " ++)) ]
> >
> > Before, without existential quantification, you had to have all  
> the same
> > type of widget (e.g. all Button or all Label)
> >
> > Hope this makes it more clear.
> >
> > -Ross
> >
> > On Jul 3, 2009, at 12:00 AM, Magicloud Magiclouds wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>  I thought "class" was for this purpose. But it turns out not.
> >>  Code as following could not compiled.
> >>
> >> 1 main = do
> >> 2   mapM_ (\(x, y, widget) -> do
> >> 3            a <- widgetRun widget
> >> 4            putStrLn $ show a
> >> 5         ) widgetList
> >> 6
> >> 7 widgetList :: (Widget w) => [(Integer, Integer, w)]
> >> 8 widgetList = []
> >> 9
> >> 10 class Widget w where
> >> 11   widgetRun :: w -> IO ()
> >> ---
> >> % ghc --make tmp/test.hs
> >> [1 of 1] Compiling Main             ( tmp/test.hs, /tmp/Main.o )
> >>
> >> tmp/test.hs:3:16:
> >>   Ambiguous type variable `t' in the constraint:
> >>     `Widget t' arising from a use of `widgetRun' at tmp/test.hs: 
> 3:16-31
> >>   Probable fix: add a type signature that fixes these type  
> variable(s)
> >> --
> >> 竹密岂妨流水过
> >> 山高哪阻野云飞
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Haskell-Cafe mailing list
> >> Haskell-Cafe at haskell.org
> >> http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> 竹密岂妨流水过
> 山高哪阻野云飞
> _______________________________________________
> Haskell-Cafe mailing list
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