[Haskell-cafe] How to define classy lenses for polymorphic types that involve singletons?

Peter Simons simons at nospf.cryp.to
Tue Jun 18 07:01:57 UTC 2019


Hi Li-yao,

 >> In theory, I should be able to make SomePerson an
 >> instance of HasPerson, define
 >>
 >>    person :: Lens' SomePerson (Person sex)
 >
 > I wonder what you mean by that, since you highlight
 > the issue just after.

what I meant is that defining that instance is the
intended purpose of the HasPerson type class. That
entire construct exists so that -- in theory -- I can
make SomePerson an instance of it and use it exactly
the same way as I would use a 'Person'. It's just that
the theory doesn't work out. I can't make SomePerson an
instance of HasPerson even though it clearly *has* a
Person inside that I *can* access.

Now, I understand why SomePerson cannot be an instance
of HasPerson. What I wonder is whether there is maybe a
way to define HasPerson such that I *can* make
SomePerson and instance of it and use it like I would
use a Person type as far as the lenses are concerned. I
have outlined one such solution in my posting, but that
solution feels awkward because it requires quite a bit
of glue code. So, I was hoping that someone could point
me to a better way to define the *class* in order to
make it applicable to SomePerson in the way HasPerson
is intended to be used.

Best regards,
Peter



More information about the Haskell-Cafe mailing list