[Haskell-cafe] Determine instance method from class method callsite

Simon Peyton Jones simonpj at microsoft.com
Thu Oct 5 16:00:08 UTC 2017


well the HsWrapper might have something much more complicated than a DFunId.  It might need to construct the dictionary for Eq [a] from the DFun for Eq [a] and a dictionary for Eq a.

it would be easy to resolve the Var of the instance method.
I don't know what "the var of the instance method" is.

I feel I'm missing the point.  maybe others can help?

Simon

From: Robin Palotai [mailto:palotai.robin at gmail.com]
Sent: 05 October 2017 11:17
To: Simon Peyton Jones <simonpj at microsoft.com>
Cc: GHC developers <ghc-devs at haskell.org>; haskell <haskell-cafe at haskell.org>
Subject: Re: Determine instance method from class method callsite

Hello Simon - I outlined the approach in https://github.com/google/haskell-indexer/issues/73<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fgoogle%2Fhaskell-indexer%2Fissues%2F73&data=02%7C01%7Csimonpj%40microsoft.com%7C6798607dd45a4865d5ef08d50bda3727%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636427954212256346&sdata=HkxeXUYlbyGJnHu2%2BM17Z5aE7XXAZCWCnWwGLMV1%2BEQ%3D&reserved=0>.
TLDR is
1) at callsite, indeed the HsWrapper needs to be analysed to get the instance DFunId
2) at instance declaration site, we need to again take note of the DFunId.
It is slightly more complicated than I expected the API. I would have expected that from having the Var of a class method, and the <something> of the instance (here DFunId), it would be easy to resolve the Var of the instance method.
But it seems there's no direct way, one has to build a lookup table from the instance methods' (DFunId + plain stringy method name), and look that up from the callsite.
Or I might have missed a way to deconstruct / query a DFunId for the method Vars.
I'll put augmenting the commentary on my mental TODO list :)

2017-10-05 11:58 GMT+02:00 Simon Peyton Jones <simonpj at microsoft.com<mailto:simonpj at microsoft.com>>:
Did you get a reply?

I'm not 100% certain of your question, but consider the

    bar = show <expr>
for some expression e.   In the input to the type type checker the syntax tree for the RHS will be something like
            HsApp (HsVar "show") <syntax tree for expr>

(The "show" isn't really a string, it's the Name for the class method.)

After typechecking the syntax tree is augmented (or "elaborated") with type and dictionary application.  So in concrete form it might look like
            bar = show @Foo dShowFoo <expr>

Because show :: forall a. Show a => a -> String, so show is apply to the type of its argument, and then to the dictionary.

In HsSyn this part is done with a HsWrapper See TcEvidence.HsWrapper.  The elaborated syntax tree look like

            HsApp (HsWrap <wrapper> (HsVar "show"))
                          <syntax tree for elaborated expr>

The <wrapper> part expresses the type and dictionary application. In this case it'll look like
            WpEvApp dShowFoo (WpTyApp Foo WpHole)

See the notes with `HsWrapper` in TcEvidence.

Does that help?

It would be great to augment the https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Commentary with this sort of info (insofar as it doesn't have it already).  If you augment I can review.  Email is quickly lost.

Simon
From: ghc-devs [mailto:ghc-devs-bounces at haskell.org<mailto:ghc-devs-bounces at haskell.org>] On Behalf Of Robin Palotai
Sent: 19 September 2017 06:39
To: GHC developers <ghc-devs at haskell.org<mailto:ghc-devs at haskell.org>>; haskell <haskell-cafe at haskell.org<mailto:haskell-cafe at haskell.org>>
Subject: Determine instance method from class method callsite

Sorry, I messed up subject and mailing list. Copying to both list now after the mistake (wanted only ghc-devs for specificity).

Thanks!

2017-09-19 7:36 GMT+02:00 Robin Palotai <palotai.robin at gmail.com<mailto:palotai.robin at gmail.com>>:
Hello GHC devs,

Before inventing the wheel, want to check if there is a GHC API way to look up the (fully) resolved instance method from a class method.

For example, given a code

    data Foo Int deriving Show

    bar = show (Foo 3)

when inspecting the Typechecked AST for bar's show call, I would like to get to the Name / Id of 'show' of the 'Show' typeclass.

I believe I could use splitHsSigmaTy on the HsType of the function call to get the context, and then evaluate the HsWrapper somehow to find out what instance dictionary is applied to the class restriction in the context, and then look up the instance method from the dictionary..

Two questions:

1) Is there maybe functionality for this?

2) If not, is there any guarantee about the constraint order in the context, at the method call? So I could more easily determine which constraint's application to look for..

Any hints welcome && Thank you!
Robin


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