[Haskell-cafe] Having trouble with instance context

[Steffen Schuldenzucker]

Hi,

On 02/23/2011 04:40 PM, Kurt Stutsman wrote:
 > [...]
 > Test is actually a kind of Serializable class. I don't want to 
restrict it to only working with Enums, which is what your 
OverlappingInstances seems to address. Is there a better way for doing 
what I am trying to do?
>
> Example:
>
> import Data.BitSet
>
> data GroupA = A1 | A2 | A3 deriving (Enum, Show)
>
> data GroupB = B1 | B2  deriving (Enum, Show)
>
> class Serializable t where
>    get :: String -> t
>    put :: t -> String
>
> instance Enum e => Serializable e where
>    get mask = {- convert mask to Int and then to a BitSet -}
>    put bitset = {- convert BitSet to Int and then to String -}

You might want to use a wrapper type: (instead of the Serializable 
instance above)

{-# LANGUAGE GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving #-}

newtype ByEnum e = ByEnum { unByEnum :: e }
     deriving (Eq, Ord, Read, Show, Enum)  -- just for convenience

instance Enum e => Serializable (ByEnum e) where
     get = ByEnum . {- same code as above -}
     put = {- same code as above -} . unByEnum

To see why this can't be done as you tried above, say that you have 
another instance of Serialize for types that are an instance of both 
Show an Read, serializing to/from a string using the 'show' and 'read' 
functions.

Then consider a type which is an instance of all Show, Read, and Enum, 
for example:

data Food = Meat | Vegetables deriving (Show, Read, Enum)

Which instance of Serializable should be used? The first one that was 
declared? Rather not...

An instance like

"If (Enum t), then (Serializable t) via the Enum instance; else, if 
(Show t, Read t), then (Serializable t) via the Show and Read instances; 
otherwise not (Serializable t)"

would be perfect, but unfortunately Haskell doesn't have a way to 
express this (yet?). Some steps[1] in this direction can however be 
taken with the current state of the language.

-- Steffen

[1] http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/GHC/AdvancedOverlap