[Haskell-cafe] class-instance

[Ryan Ingram]

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 11:56 PM, Patrick Browne <patrick.browne at dit.ie> wrote:
> I am trying to see what how this requirement can be represented using
> just the normal instance-implements-class relation for a comparison with
> a specification language approach.
>
> If there is no simple way to do this using type classes then I am
> obviously mis-using the technique.

Going back to your original message:

-- My intension is that the PERSON class should *specify*
-- that a person has a constant id called p1
-- and that a person has a name that can be found from the id.

You can do this with type level numerals.

data Z
data S a

type Zero = Z
type One = S Zero
type Two = S One
-- etc

class PersonId a where
    name :: a -> String

instance PersonId Z where
    name _ = "John"
instance PersonId (S Z) where
    name _ = "Julie"

main = putStrLn (name (undefined :: One))  -- prints "Julie"

  -- ryan