[Haskell-cafe] passing a polymorphic function as a parameter vs using it directly in a function definition

[Pasqualino "Titto" Assini]

Many thanks for the explanation.

But I thought that GHC always derives the most generic type, why does
it fix my 'a' to 'Int' ?


I have another question, now that I know how to pass a generic
continuation to evalAST I thought that I could use it to evaluate a
more complex language:

{-# LANGUAGE GADTs, RankNTypes #-}
test = evalAST pr (AppA (SymA "reverse") (TxtA "abc"))
t1 = eval $ App (Lit reverse) (Lit "jij")

pr :: (Show a) => Expr a -> IO ()
pr = print . eval

evalAST :: (forall a. Show a => Expr a -> IO()) -> AST -> IO ()
evalAST k (IntA i) = k $ Lit i
evalAST k (TxtA i) = k $ Lit i
evalAST k (AppA f a) = evalASTFun (\ef -> (evalAST (\ea -> k $ App ef ea) a)) f

evalASTFun :: (forall a b. Expr (a-> b) -> IO ()) -> AST -> IO ()
evalASTFun k (SymA "reverse") = k $ Lit reverse
evalASTFun k (SymA "+") = k $ Lit (+)

-- An untyped expression
data AST = IntA Int | TxtA String | SymA String | AppA AST AST

-- A typed expression.
data Expr a where
  Lit  :: a -> Expr a
  App :: Expr (a->b) -> Expr a -> Expr b

instance Show (a->b) where show f = "function"

eval :: Expr a -> a
eval (Lit i) = i
eval (App f a) = (eval f) (eval a)

But, this won't type check:
evalAST k (AppA f a) = evalASTFun (\ef -> (evalAST (\ea -> k $ App ef ea) a)) f


My understanding is that GHC correctly complains that the Expr a
returned by ea is not necessarily the same Expr 'a' that ef needs.

Is there any way out?

Thanks,

              titto



On 15 July 2010 11:20, Bas van Dijk <v.dijk.bas at gmail.com> wrote:
> GHC tries to infer the following type for evalAST2:
>
> evalAST2 :: forall a. (Expr a -> IO()) -> AST -> IO ()
>
> However when the type of 'a' has been found in the first alternatives:
>
> evalAST2 k (IntA i) = k $ Lit i
>
> it is fixed to Int. Then the 'a' doesn't match the type (String) found
> in the other alternative:
>
> evalAST2 k (TxtA i) = k $ Lit i
>
> The reason why evalAST type checks is that the type of 'k' is
>
> k :: forall a. (Show a) => Expr a -> IO ()
>
> So it works not just for one 'a' but for all of them.
>
> The way to correctly generalize evalAST is by telling GHC that 'k'
> indeed works for all 'a':
>
> {-# LANGUAGE RankNTypes #-}
>
> evalAST2 :: (forall a. Expr a -> IO()) -> AST -> IO ()
>
> Regards,
>
> Bas
>
> On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 11:50 AM, Pasqualino "Titto" Assini
> <tittoassini at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> can anyone please explain why in the following code evalAST compiles
>> while evalAST2 doesn't?:
>>
>> Is that because the polymorphic function k is specialised in two
>> different ways in evalAST while in evalAST2 it is constrained to be
>> the same function?
>>
>> {-# LANGUAGE GADTs #-}
>>
>> test = evalAST (TxtA "abc")
>>
>> -- This is OK
>> evalAST :: AST -> IO ()
>> evalAST (IntA i) = k $ Lit i
>> evalAST (TxtA i) = k $ Lit i
>>
>> k :: (Show a) => Expr a -> IO ()
>> k e  = print $ eval e
>>
>> -- This is the same thing, only the k function is passed as a parameter.
>> -- But it won't compile.
>> -- I would expect its type to be:
>> -- evalAST2 :: (Expr a -> IO()) -> AST -> IO ()
>> -- But is actually:
>> -- evalAST2 :: (Expr Int -> IO ()) -> AST -> IO ()
>> evalAST2 k (IntA i) = k $ Lit i
>> -- evalAST2 k (TxtA i) = k $ Lit i
>>
>>
>> -- The untyped expression
>> data AST = IntA Int | TxtA String
>>
>> -- A typed expression.
>> data Expr a where Lit  :: a -> Expr a
>>
>> eval :: Expr a -> a
>> eval (Lit i) = i
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>          titto
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