On 05/29/10 21:24, Carlos Camarao wrote:
The situation is as if we a FD:
Well, that is indeed equivalent here in the second argument of class F,
but I constructed the example to show an issue in the class's *first*
argument.
Notice you needed to add type-signatures, on the functions you named "g"
-- in particular their first arguments -- to make the example work with
only FDs?
module C where
class F a b | a->b where f :: a -> b
class O a where o :: a
module P where
import C; instance F Bool Bool where f = not
instance O Bool where o = True
g:: Bool -> Bool
g = f
k::Bool
k = g o
module Q where
import C
instance F Int Bool where f = even
instance O Int where o = 0
g::Int->Bool
g = f
k :: Bool
k = g o
you can inline these "k"-definitions into module Main and it will work
(modulo importing C).
module Main where
import C
import P
import Q
main = do { print (((f :: Bool -> Bool) o) :: Bool);
print (((f :: Int -> Bool) o) :: Bool) }
These are two different expressions that are being printed, because
" :: Bool -> Bool" is different from " :: Int -> Bool". In my example
of using your proposal, one cannot inline in the same way, if I
understand correctly (the inlining would cause ambiguity errors --
unless of course the above distinct type-signatures are added).
If your proposal was able to require those -- and only those -- bits of
type signatures that were essential to resolve the above ambiguity; for
example, the ( :: Int) below,
module Q where
import C
instance F Int Bool where f = even
instance O Int where o = 0
k = f (o :: Int)
, then I would be fine with your proposal (but then I suspect it would
have to be equivalent to FDs -- or in other words, that it's not really
practical to change your proposal to have that effect).
I stand by my assertion that "the same expression means different things
in two different modules" is undesirable, (and that I suspect but am
unsure that this undesirability is named "incoherent instances").
I'm trying to work out whether it's possible to violate the invariants
of a Map by using your extension (having it select a different instance
in two different places, given the same type).. I think, no it is not
possible for Ord or any single-parameter typeclass, though there might
be some kind of issues with multi-parameter typeclasses, if the library
relies on a FD-style relationship between two class type-parameters and
then two someones each add an instance that together violate that
implied FD-relationship (which is allowed under your scheme, unlike if
there was an actual FD). Er, odd, I need to play with some actual FD
code to think about this, but I'm too sleepy / busy packing for a trip.
Did any of the above make sense to you? It's fine if some didn't, type
systems are complicated... and please point out if something I said was
outright wrong.
-Isaac
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