Hello all,

I'm learning Haskell, and started to go through a set of intermediate exercises (https://www.fpcomplete.com/user/DanBurton/20-intermediate-exercises). I am a bit puzzled about one of the exercises, and hope someone can help me understand why one of my solutions doesn't work.

We have a typeclass, Misty (only the relevant banana function shown) as:

class Misty m where

banana :: (a -> m b) -> m a -> m b

The exercise asks to implement this typeclass for the type ‘((->) t)’. I started off by filling in the relevant types, and I get:

banana :: (a -> ((->) t b) ) -> ((->) t a) -> ((->) t b)

banana :: (a -> (t -> b)) -> (t -> a) -> (t -> b)

Based on this, I decided to implement banana as:

banana f g = (\x -> f (g x))

Here is my thought process:

- The type of f is ‘(a -> t -> b)’, and the type of g is ‘(t -> a)’

- g converts an argument of type ‘t’ into a result of type ‘a’.

- I then pass the result of ‘(g x)’ (which is of type ‘a’) as an argument to ‘f’.

- At this point, ‘f’ would be partially applied, and I *expect* to get a result of type ‘(t -> b)’

However, when I try to build my solution, I get the following error (code is in a file called intermediate-help.hs):

[1 of 1] Compiling Main ( intermediate-help.hs, interpreted )

intermediate-help.hs:7:25:

Couldn't match expected type ‘b’ with actual type ‘t -> b’

‘b’ is a rigid type variable bound by

the type signature for

banana :: (a -> t -> b) -> (t -> a) -> t -> b

at intermediate-help.hs:7:5

Relevant bindings include

x :: t (bound at intermediate-help.hs:7:20)

g :: t -> a (bound at intermediate-help.hs:7:14)

f :: a -> t -> b (bound at intermediate-help.hs:7:12)

banana :: (a -> t -> b) -> (t -> a) -> t -> b

(bound at intermediate-help.hs:7:5)

In the expression: f (g x)

In the expression: (\ x -> f (g x))

Failed, modules loaded: none.

So here's my confusion: The compiler is complaining that it cannot match expected type ‘b’ with actual type ‘t -> b’. However, as I reasoned above, when I wrote this code, I expected to get type ‘t -> b’. Clearly, my thought process has a hole, and I need help/advice from more experienced Haskellers to identify what I am missing.

Thank you for any help,

~Umair