[Haskell-cafe] The "type & data" constructor confused me !

[Ivan Lazar Miljenovic]

On 13 January 2011 13:03, z_axis <z_axis at 163.com> wrote:
>
> data Layout a = forall l. (LayoutClass l a, Read (l a)) => Layout (l a)
>
> readsLayout :: Layout a -> String -> [(Layout a, String)]
> readsLayout (Layout l) s = [(Layout (asTypeOf x l), rs) | (x, rs) <- reads
> s]
>
> Why is the first parameter of readsLayout "(Layout l)" not "Layout (l a)" ?

Look at the data definition: if we replace the constraint with some
"L" type of kind * -> *, we have:

data Layout a = Layout (L a)

Note that the type of the value contained within the actual
constructor is the application of L (originally l) to a.  For example,
if L == Maybe, then this could be a value of type "Layout Int" with
the value "Layout (Just 3)".

As such, there is only one actual internal value to pattern match against.

-- 
Ivan Lazar Miljenovic
Ivan.Miljenovic at gmail.com
IvanMiljenovic.wordpress.com