On Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 11:39:42PM -0500, Ronald Guida wrote: > > data PZero = PZero deriving (Show) > > data PSucc a = PSucc a deriving (Show) > > > > type P1 = PSucc PZero > > type P2 = PSucc P1 > > type P3 = PSucc P2 > > -- etc
...
> Now here's the puzzle. I want to create a function "vecLength" that
> accepts a vector and returns its length. The catch is that I want to
> calculate the length based on the /type/ of the vector, without
> looking at the number of elements in the list.
>
> So I started by defining a class that allows me to convert a Peano
> number to an integer. I couldn't figure out how to define a function
> that converts the type directly to an integer, so I am using a
> two-step process. Given a Peano type /t/, I would use the expression
> "pToInt (pGetValue :: t)".
>
> > class Peano t where
> > pGetValue :: t
> > pToInt :: t -> Int
> >
> > instance Peano PZero where
> > pGetValue = PZero
> > pToInt _ = 0
> >
> > instance (Peano t) => Peano (PSucc t) where
> > pGetValue = PSucc pGetValue
> > pToInt (PSucc a) = 1 + pToInt a
>
> Finally, I tried to define vecLength, but I am getting an error.
>
> > vecLength :: (Peano s) => Vec s t -> Int
> > vecLength _ = pToInt (pGetValue :: s)
1. pGetValue is unneccessary, undefined :: s will work just as well.
This is a fairly standard approach; the precision values in Floating,
bitSize :: Bits a => a -> Int, and sizeOf :: Storable a => a -> Int
all work this way. Some Haskeller, notably Alex Jacobson, prefer to
use a 'proxy' type to make this value irrelevance explicit:
data Proxy s -- for H98, data Proxy s = Proxy_ !(Proxy s)
2. The reason this doesn't work is that the scope of s in the type
signature is the type signature, and the scope of s in the other type
signature is the other type signature. They are very different type
variables, and you cannot assign the type forall s. s to pGetValue -
it has class constraints. The effect you are trying to achieve
cannot be directly achieved in H98 (this is considered one of H98's
few major flaws)...
2a: Use GHC extentions (ScopedTypeVariables). This extends the scope
of type variables to include the definition. For backwards
compatibility, it only applies to new-style explicit
quantification:
vecLength :: forall s. Peano s => Vec s t -> Int
2b: Use functions with type constraints to force relations between
types:
vecLength v = pToInt (vToPeano v) where
vToPeano = undefined :: Vec s t -> s
Figuring out why this works should be enlightening, and it seems
hard to explain, so I'm leaving it as an excersize. :)
Stefan
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