[Haskell-cafe] Hint and Ambiguous Type issue

[Joseph Fredette]

So, I tried both of those things, both each alone and together. No dice. 
Same error, so I reverted back to the
original.  :(
 
However, I was, after some random type signature insertions, able to 
convert the problem into a different one, via:

getFilterMain :: Deliverable a => FilePath -> Interpreter (Filter 
a)                          
getFilterMain MainLoc = do
        loadModules [fMainLoc]; setTopLevelModules [(takeWhile (/='.') 
fMainLoc)]                        
        fMain  <- (interpret "(filterMain)" infer)
        return (fMain :: Deliverable a => Filter a)          


   Inferred type is less polymorphic than expected
      Quantified type variable `a' is mentioned in the environment:
        fMain :: Filter a (bound at Hackmain.hs:77:1)
    In the first argument of `return', namely
        `(fMain :: (Deliverable a) => Filter a)'
    In the expression: return (fMain :: (Deliverable a) => Filter a)
    In the expression:
        do loadModules [fMainLoc]
           setTopLevelModules [(takeWhile (/= '.') fMainLoc)]
           fMain <- (interpret "(filterMain)" infer)
           return (fMain :: (Deliverable a) => Filter a)
                                   
                                                              
I'm thinking that this might be more easily solved -- I do think I 
understand the issue. somehow, I need to tell the compiler
that the 'a' used in the return statement (return (fMain :: ...)) is the 
same as the 'a' in the type sig for the whole function.

While I ponder this, and hopefully receive some more help -- thanks 
again Dan, Ryan -- Are there any other options besides Hint that might 
-- at least in the short term -- make this easier? I'd really like to 
finish this up. I'm _so_ close to getting it done.

Thanks,

/Joe

Ryan Ingram wrote:
> So, by using the Haskell interpreter, you're using the
> not-very-well-supported dynamically-typed subset of Haskell.  You can
> tell this from the type signature of "interpret":
>
>   
>> interpret :: Typeable a => String -> a -> Interpreter a
>>     
>
>   
>> as :: Typeable a => a
>> as = undefined
>>     
>
> (from http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/hint/0.2.1/doc/html/src/Language-Haskell-Interpreter-GHC.html)
>
> In particular, the "as" argument to interpret is specifying what type
> you want the interpreted result to be typechecked against; the
> interpretation fails if it doesn't match that type.  But you need the
> result type to be an instance of Typeable; (forall a. Deliverable a =>
> Filter a) most certainly is not.
>
>
> Off the top of my head, you have a couple of directions you can take this.
>
> (1) Make Typeable a superclass of Deliverable, saying that all
> deliverable things must be dynamically typeable.  Then derive Typeable
> on Filter, and have the result be of type "Filter a" using
> ScopedTypeVariables as suggested before. (You can also pass "infer" to
> the interpreter and let the compiler try to figure out the result type
> instead of passing (as :: SomeType).)
>
> (2) Make a newtype wrapper around Filter and give it an instance of
> Typeable, and add a constraint to filterMain that the result type in
> the filter is also typeable.  Then unwrap the newtype after the
> interpreter completes.
>
> Good luck; I've never tried to use the Haskell interpreter before, so
> I'm curious how well it works and what problems you have with it!
>
>
>   -- ryan
>
> 2009/3/5 Joseph Fredette <jfredett at gmail.com>:
>   
>> I've been working on a little project, and one of the things I need to do is
>> dynamically compile and import a Haskell Source file containing filtering
>> definitions. I've written a small monad called Filter which is simply:
>>
>>   type Filter a = Reader (Config, Email) a
>>
>> To encompass all the email filtering. The method I need to import,
>> filterMain, has type:
>>
>>   filterMain :: Deliverable a => Filter a
>>
>> where Deliverable is a type class which abstracts over delivery to a path in
>> the file system. The notion is that I can write a type like:
>>
>>   data DEmail = {email :: Email, path :: FilePath}
>>   newtype Maildir = MD DEmail
>>
>>   instance Deliverable Maildir where
>>      {- ... omitted -}
>>
>> However, Filter a should not be restricted to Deliverable types- it also
>> encompasses the results of regular expression matching, etc, which are not
>> -- in general -- Deliverable instances.
>>
>> My question is this, when importing the file containing the definitions of
>>  filterMain, I have the following code to grab filterMain and return it as a
>> function.
>>
>>   getFilterMain :: Deliverable a => FilePath -> Interpreter (Filter a)
>>                       getFilterMain fMainLoc = do
>>                                                         loadModules
>> [fMainLoc]; setTopLevelModules [(takeWhile (/='.') fMainLoc)]
>>                     fMain  <- (interpret "(filterMain)" (as :: Deliverable a
>> => Filter a))                                     return (fMain)
>>
>>                                          However, when I try to compile
>> this, I get the type error:
>>
>>   Hackmain.hs:70:43:
>>       Ambiguous type variable `a' in the constraint:
>>         `Deliverable a'
>>           arising from a use of `getFilterMainStuff' at Hackmain.hs:70:43-60
>>       Probable fix: add a type signature that fixes these type variable(s)
>>
>> My understanding is that a type like "Foo a => Bar a" (where Foo is a class
>> and Bar is a datatype) would simply restrict
>> the values of a to only those implementing Foo. But evidently I'm wrong. Is
>> there a good (read, easy... :) ) fix to this?
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> /Joe
>>
>> PS. All the actual code is on patch-tag, here
>> http://patch-tag.com/repo/Hackmail/home -- if anyone prefers to look at that
>> directly, the relevant files are in Src, namely, Hackmain.hs, Filter.hs, and
>> Deliverable.hs
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Haskell-Cafe at haskell.org
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>>
>>
>>     
>
>   
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