newtype deriving, was Re: [Haskell-cafe] is closing a class this easy?

Conor McBride conor at strictlypositive.org
Sat Jul 18 05:43:09 EDT 2009


Hi Stefan

On 18 Jul 2009, at 09:42, Stefan Holdermans wrote:

> Conor,
>
>>
>> What happens when I say
>>
>> newtype Jim = Hide Fred deriving Public
>>
>> ? I tried it. I get
>>
>> blah :: EQ Jim Fred
>>
>> It's clear that GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving goes too far.
>
> Now, I am scared. This should be regarded as a bug in generalised  
> newtype deriving, shouldn't it? I would expect newtype deriving to  
> be unable to come up with instances that cannot be written by hand.

I think the latter is a useful general principle for "deriving".

The trouble here is that somewhere along the line (GADTs? earlier?)
it became possible to construct candidates for p :: * -> * which don't
respect isomorphism. These tend to be somewhat intensional in nature,
and they mess up the transfer of functionality.

If we could be sure that all such a p would do with its parameter
(x, say) is trade in values of x (as opposed to trading in the identity
of x), then we could be sure that p respects isomorphisms. I'm
hoping that a category theorist will say something about dinaturality
at this point, because I'd like to understand that stuff.

I wonder if there's a potential refinement of the kind system lurking
here, distinguishing *, types-up-to-iso, from |*|, types-up-to-identity.
That might help us to detect classes for which newtype deriving is
inappropriate: GADTs get indexed over |*|, not *; classes of *s are
derivable, but classes of |*|s are not. I certainly don't have a clear
proposal just now. It looks like an important distinction: recognizing
it somehow might buy us something.

> I would have expected people out on the streets marching to GHC  
> headquarters by now; how can you stay so calm?

GHC HQ are up to their armpits in newtypes already. This distinction
between type equality and (trivial) type isomorphism is something
they're already facing. I don't know if they've solved this problem
yet, but I suspect they're in the area. No need for a commotion.

All the best

Conor



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