[Haskell-cafe] Typeclasses vs simple functions?

[Sean Leather]

> Perimeter doesn't make sense for Sphere or Cylinder. So we could define a
> type class for objects that have perimeter and make an instance of it only
> for Circle (data Circle = Circle Position Radius). Make sense. But these
> three functions above have desired behaviour. If user has a list of objects
> like [Sphere, Circle, Circle, Cylinder] he would like to calculate
> perimeters of each object using map perimerer list (in this case we also
> have to modify Geometry data type).
> So we could make instances of "perimeter" type class for all objects and
> return zero in case if perimeter doesn't make sense.
> Same as previous version but with typeclasses and with additional
> constructors (constructors for each type of object + constructors in
> Geometry data). Looks a bit overcomplicated.
> Any reasons to use type classes in this case? Maybe there is something I'm
> missing?
>

If you're talking about a single datatype with multiple constructors, then
the function 'perimeter :: Geometry -> Maybe Double' makes sense. If you're
talking about multiple datatypes, then you probably want to go type class
route.

data Sphere = Sphere ...
data Circle = Circle ...

class Perimeter a where perimeter :: a -> Double
instance Perimeter Circle where perimeter (Circle ...) = ...
-- No instance for Sphere

class Volume a where volume :: a -> Double
instance Volume Sphere where volume (Sphere ...) = ...
-- No instance for Circle

You have to decide whether (1) a datatype Geometry makes sense or (2) a
datatype per geometric entity is better. One advantage to #1 is that writing
functions over the datatype is easy. One advantage to #2 is that you have
fewer (partial) 'Maybe' functions. This is also related to the "expression
problem," a Googleable term.

As for having a list of objects, you can do it with either approach. The
second approach may require existential types.

Regards,
Sean
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