[Haskell-cafe] Multi-parameter type class woes

[Mario Blažević]

> I'll take a swing at this one:
> 
> instance Container (Maybe x) [x] where
> wrapper = isNothing
> . . .
> 
> That isn't a sensible definition of 'wrapper', but I believe without 
> trying to compile it is completely legal.  Which wrapper do you use?
> 
> You /don't/ have a different matching Container instance, but without the 
> functional dependency you /might/, and ghc barfs.


    But liftWrap doesn't require any particular instance, it's a 
generic function accepting any pair of types for which there is 
an instance of Container. Instance selection (as I understand it)
shouldn't come into play until one applies liftWrap to a
particular type, and indeed it does cause problems there: note
the type annotations on the last line. That part I understand
and accept, or at least have learned to live with.


> On Sun, 14 Dec 2008, Mario Bla?evi? wrote:
> 
>> I have, for a change, a relatively simple problem with
>> type classes. Can somebody explain to me, or point me to an explanation of
>> the behaviour I see?
>>
>> Here is a short and useless example:
>>
>>  {-# LANGUAGE MultiParamTypeClasses, FlexibleInstances #-}
>>
>>   import Data.Maybe
>>
>>   class Container x y where
>>      wrapper :: x -> Bool
>>      unwrap :: x -> y
>>      rewrap :: y -> x
>>
>>   liftWrap :: Container x y => (y -> y) -> (x -> x)
>>   liftWrap f x = (if wrapper x then rewrap . f . unwrap else id) x
>>
>>   instance Container (Maybe x) x where
>>      wrapper = isJust
>>      unwrap = fromJust
>>      rewrap = Just
>>
>>   main = print (liftWrap (succ :: Int -> Int) (Just 1 :: Maybe Int))
>>
>> GHC 6.10.1 refuses to typecheck the 'wrapper' function
>> in definition of 'liftWrap', with the following error message:
>>
>>    Could not deduce (Container x y) from the context (Container x y1)
>>      arising from a use of `wrapper' at Test.hs:11:22-30
>>    Possible fix:
>>      add (Container x y) to the context of
>>        the type signature for `liftWrap'
>>    In the expression: wrapper x
>>    In the expression:
>>        (if wrapper x then rewrap . f . unwrap else id) x
>>    In the definition of `liftWrap':
>>        liftWrap f x = (if wrapper x then rewrap . f . unwrap else id) x
>>
>> Let me clarify that I'm aware that in this particular
>> example a functional dependecy should be used. Also, I can think of a few
>> workarounds for my actual problem, so I'm not asking for any solutions. I'm
>> looking for an explanation. It bugs me that my intuition of how this type
>> class should have worked is completely wrong. The error message does not
>> help, to put it mildly. Where should I go, what should I read?
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