On 17 Dec 2007, at 12:22, Nicholls, Mark wrote:
Ok...
Thanks I need to revisit data and newtype to work out what the
difference is I think.
Beware in doing so -- type, and newtype are not the same either. type
creates a type synonim. That is, if I were to declare
type Jam = Int
then Jam and Int from that point on become completely interchangable,
the only thing this does is make things readable. For example, a
parser might be described as a function that takes a list of tokens,
and outputs a parse tree, and a list of unparsed tokens:
type Parser = [Token] -> (ParseTree, [Token])
if I write some parser combinators, I can now give them clear types like
<|> :: Parser -> Parser -> Parser
I could however still write this, and it would have *exactly* the same
meaning.
<|> :: ([Token] -> (ParseTree, [Token])) -> ([Token] -> (ParseTree,
[Token])) -> [Token] -> (ParseTree, [Token])
newtype on the other hand introduces a new type to the type system.
Because of this, the type system has to be able to tell when you're
using your new type, so a tag gets attached.
newtype Ham = Ham Int
This creates a type that contains only an integer, but is different
from Int (and Jam) in the type system's eyes. Thus, I cannot for
example write
(Ham 5) + (Ham 6)
Because Ham is not Int and thus (+) does not work (or actually, more
specifically, Ham is not a member of the class Num, the numeric types,
and therefore (+) doesn't work). This can of course be fixed thus:
newtype Ham = Ham Int deriving Num
Hope that helps
Tom Davie
p.s. Sorry for the slip with the newtype Rectangle.
_______________________________________________
Haskell-Cafe mailing list
Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org
http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
