[Haskell-cafe] object oriented technique

[Tad Doxsee]

I've been trying to learn Haskell for a while now, and recently
wanted to do something that's very common in the object oriented
world, subtype polymorphism with a heterogeneous collection.
It took me a while, but I found a solution that meets
my needs. It's a combination of solutions that I saw on the
web, but I've never seen it presented in a way that combines both
in a short note. (I'm sure it's out there somewhere, but it's off the beaten
path that I've been struggling along.)  The related solutions
are

1. section 3.6 of http://homepages.cwi.nl/~ralf/OOHaskell/paper.pdf

2. The GADT comment at the end of section 4 of
    http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Heterogenous_collections

I'm looking for comments on the practicality of the solution,
and references to better explanations of, extensions to, or simpler
alternatives for what I'm trying to achieve.

Using the standard example, here's the code:


data Rectangle = Rectangle { rx, ry, rw, rh :: Double }
                        deriving (Eq, Show)

drawRect :: Rectangle -> String
drawRect r = "Rect (" ++ show (rx r) ++ ", "  ++ show (ry r) ++ ") -- "
             ++ show (rw r) ++ " x " ++ show (rh r)


data Circle = Circle {cx, cy, cr :: Double}
                        deriving (Eq, Show)

drawCirc :: Circle -> String
drawCirc c = "Circ (" ++ show (cx c) ++ ", " ++ show (cy c)++ ") -- "
             ++ show (cr c)

r1 = Rectangle 0 0 3 2
r2 = Rectangle 1 1 4 5
c1 = Circle 0 0 5
c2 = Circle 2 0 7


rs = [r1, r2]
cs = [c1, c2]

rDrawing = map drawRect rs
cDrawing = map drawCirc cs

-- shapes = rs ++ cs

Of course, the last line won't compile because the standard Haskell list
may contain only homogeneous types.  What I wanted to do is create a list of
circles and rectangles, put them in a list, and draw them.  It was easy
for me to find on the web and in books how to do that if I controlled
all of the code. What wasn't immediately obvious to me was how to do that
in a library that could be extended by others.  The references noted
previously suggest this solution:


class ShapeC s where
  draw :: s -> String
  copyTo :: s -> Double -> Double -> s

-- needs {-# LANGUAGE GADTs #-}
data ShapeD  where
  ShapeD :: ShapeC s => s -> ShapeD

instance ShapeC ShapeD where
  draw (ShapeD s) = draw s
  copyTo (ShapeD s) x y = ShapeD (copyTo s x y)

mkShape :: ShapeC s => s -> ShapeD
mkShape s = ShapeD s



instance ShapeC Rectangle where
  draw = drawRect
  copyTo (Rectangle _ _ rw rh) x y = Rectangle x y rw rh

instance ShapeC Circle where
  draw = drawCirc
  copyTo (Circle _ _ r) x y = Circle x y r


r1s = ShapeD r1
r2s = ShapeD r2
c1s = ShapeD c1
c2s = ShapeD c2

shapes1 = [r1s, r2s, c1s, c2s]
drawing1 = map draw shapes1

shapes2 = map mkShape rs ++ map mkShape cs
drawing2 = map draw shapes2

-- copy the shapes to the origin then draw them
shapes3 = map (\s -> copyTo s 0 0) shapes2
drawing3 = map draw shapes3


Another user could create a list of shapes that included triangles by creating
a ShapeC instance for his triangle and using mkShape to add it to a list of
ShapeDs.

Is the above the standard method in Haskell for creating an extensible
heterogeneous list of "objects" that share a common interface?  Are there better
approaches?  (I ran into a possible limitation to this approach that I plan
to ask about later if I can't figure it out myself.)

- Tad