[Haskell-cafe] Associated data types and contexts

[Eric Walkingshaw]

The following code compiles happily in GHC:

> {-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-}
>
> class C a where
>   data D a
>   m :: D a -> Bool
>
> test :: C a => D a -> Bool
> test = m

My question is why do I need the context in the function "test"?  It
seems like since "D" is associated with class "C", the compiler can
safely assume that any time I have a "D a", "a" must be an instance of
C.  But GHC complains if the context is removed.

At first I thought that maybe the associated type was just syntactic
sugar for a non-associated data type family.  But this doesn't seem to
be the case since I cannot instantiate D outside of an instance of C.
Google and the type family documentation provided no other leads.

Am I missing something here?  Is the context assumption invalid?  Or
is it just an assumption that GHC doesn't make (yet)?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

-Eric
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