[Haskell-beginners] Type classes are not like interfaces, after all

[Thomas Davie]

On 23 Jan 2009, at 14:37, Francesco Bochicchio wrote:

>
>
> 2009/1/23 Paul Visschers <mail at paulvisschers.net>
> Hello,
>
> It seems like you have some trouble with grasping the concept of
> polymorphism in this particular case.
>
> <...>
>
> I think I get the polymorphism. What I don't get is why a  
> specialized type cannot
> replace a more generic type, since the specialized type implements  
> the interface
> defined in the generic type.
>

Suppose I declare this constant:
x :: Num a => a
x = 3 :: Integer

Now suppose I want to use that in a function.  It's type signature  
says that x is *any* numeric type i want it to be, so I'm going to add  
it to another numeric value:

y :: Complex Float
y = x + (5.3 :+ 6.93)

Unfortunately, x *can't* take the form of any Numeric type – it has to  
be an Integer, so I can't add it do Complex Floating point numbers.

The type system is telling you "while Integers may imelement the  
numeric interface, the value 3 :: Integer is not a generic value – it  
can't take the form of *any* numeric value, only a specific type of  
numeric values".

Bob
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