[Template-haskell] Using a Typ as a Type

[Alastair Reid]

> Perhaps the thing to
> do is to give a simple but concrete example of what you'd like to do. 

The following is a simplified version of what I tried to do in Template 
Greencard.  

-- a new class
class X a where 
  -- member parameterized on result type
  f :: String -> a
  -- member parameterized by argument type
  ctype :: a -> String

-- instances for old types
instance X Int where 
  f = read
  ctype _ = "HsInt"  -- FFI-defined C type corresponding to Int

-- instances for freshly defined types
newtype T = T Int 
  deriving Show  -- included to make the example work

instance X T where
  f s = T (read s)
  g (T x) = g x

generate :: String -> Q Typ -> Q [Dec]
generate nm typ = do

  -- The next line contains the type splice.
  -- Note that it is used to perform a compile-time dictionary
  -- lookup not a runtime lookup.
  -- I'm not wedded 
  let x = f "1" :: $typ

  -- Generate C code (should be written to a file, not stdout) 
  -- Code generated depends on type argument
  qIO (putStrLn (ctype x ++ " " ++ nm ++ " = " ++ show x ++ ";\n")

  -- return a variable definition.
  -- again, the definition returned depends on the type 
  -- because it uses 'x' which was produced as a result of 
  -- the compile-time dictionary lookup.
  [d| $nm = $(literal x) |]


> Remember, the execution of TH program can be described by ordinary
> rewriting rules (replace the LHS of a function by the RHS of the
> function, suitably instantiated), augmented with the one extra rule
> 	$[| e |]  =  e

Should this apply to types as well?

--
Alastair