[Haskell-cafe] Template Haskell sees into abstract data types

[Serguey Zefirov]

2010/7/28 Jonas Almström Duregård <jonas.duregard at gmail.com>:
> Hi,
>
>> I cannot write classes that see into internal structure. For example,
>> I cannot write my own (de)serialization without using from/toAscList.
>
> Actually I don't believe you can do this with TH either. TH splices
> code into the module where you use it. The generated code is then type
> checked in this module. If constructors that are not exported are used
> in the generated code, I believe you will get an error.
>
> This could still be an issue because your TH code won't know if the
> constructors are exported or not, but i doubt you can actually do
> things with TH that you can't do with plain H.

I doubt that doubt first. ;)

>> At least, it looks like I can, I didn't tried, actually.
> Neither have I.

So I did. And succeed: TH sees into data types.

(ghc 6.12.1)

Module A.hs, contains definition of abstract data type A, class Class
and some primitive instance generator for that Class. Instance
generator takes a data declaration name, takes first constructor
(which should be argumentless) and makes it a value for definition of
"c" function.
----------------------------------------------------------
{-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell #-}

module A(A,Class(..),mkSimpleClass) where

import Language.Haskell.TH

data A = A1 | A2
	deriving Show

class Class a where
	c :: a

mkSimpleClass :: Name -> Q [Dec]
mkSimpleClass name = do
	TyConI (DataD [] dname [] cs _) <- reify name
	((NormalC conname []):_) <- return cs
	ClassI (ClassD [] cname [_] [] [SigD mname _]) <- reify ''Class
	return [InstanceD [] (AppT (ConT cname) (ConT dname)) [FunD mname
[Clause [] (NormalB (ConE conname)) []]]]
----------------------------------------------------------

Module B.hs, imports A.hs, uses mkSimpleClass on A.A name:
----------------------------------------------------------
{-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell #-}

module B where

import A

$(mkSimpleClass ''A)
----------------------------------------------------------

I successfully loaded B.hs into ghci, Expression "c :: A" successfully
evaluates to A1.

My view on that problem is that we can add TyConIAbs for incompletely
exported and abstract data types.

When someone get TyConIAbs after reification, he will know that he
doesn't know everything about that type.

So, empty data declaration like "data Z" will return TyConI with empty
list of constructors, TyConIAbs will have empty list of constructors
for abstract data type.