[Haskell-cafe] Functional dependencies and Peano numbers

[wren ng thornton]

Brandon S Allbery KF8NH wrote:
> On 7/6/10 15:37 , Oscar Finnsson wrote:
>> but can they also be on a form similar to
>>
>>> a b c d e f g h| b c -> d e f | b d g -> h
>>  (i.e. d,e,f are decided by the b,c-combination while h is decided by
>> the b,d,g-combination)?
> 
> I think the answer to this is "yes, but if you have an MPTC with 8
> parameters then you desperately need to refactor".

Yes, you can add multiple dependencies. The syntax is to use , after the 
first |.

While having eight parameters is surely a desperate need for 
refactoring, there are times when you'd want multiple dependencies. For 
example, you can say

     class F a b | a -> b, b -> a where...

to express a bijective function on types (that is, for every pair of A 
and B, if you know one of them then you know what the other must be 
uniquely).

-- 
Live well,
~wren