Hi Derek, you can find the desired functions and type classes using Hoogle [1]. Your attempt at an Ord instance is basically the right idea, but you need to define the function "compare" only [2]. From your syntax it looks like you are trying to define a function called "ord" that additionally uses "compare" (in a way, it cannot be used). Removing "ord" in all three cases fixes your problem, although the resulting function "compare" is not total. The documentation of the type classes usually contains a description of what functions you need to define. The fact that the "Show" type class instance can be obtained using a function called "show" is a coincidence. Best regards, Nikita [1] https://www.haskell.org/hoogle/ [2] http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.8.1.0/docs/Prelude.html#t:Ord On 30/07/15 15:16, derek riemer wrote:

Hi, I was playing around with haskell, and decided to implement a RockPaperScissors type.

data RPS= Rock | Paper | Scissors Then I manually derived show for fun. instance Show RPS where show Rock = "rock" show Paper = "paper" show Scissors = "scissors"

But, I have a problem when defining ord. How do I look in the sourcecode for ord? In ghci I did prelude> :i Ord <snip> Ord (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance (Ord a, Ord b, Ord c, Ord d, Ord e, Ord f, Ord g, Ord h, Ord i) => Ord (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance (Ord a, Ord b, Ord c, Ord d, Ord e, Ord f, Ord g, Ord h) => Ord (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance (Ord a, Ord b, Ord c, Ord d, Ord e, Ord f, Ord g) => Ord (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance (Ord a, Ord b, Ord c, Ord d, Ord e, Ord f) => Ord (a, b, c, d, e, f) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance (Ord a, Ord b, Ord c, Ord d, Ord e) => Ord (a, b, c, d, e) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance (Ord a, Ord b, Ord c, Ord d) => Ord (a, b, c, d) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance (Ord a, Ord b, Ord c) => Ord (a, b, c) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance (Ord a, Ord b) => Ord (a, b) -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' instance Ord () -- Defined in `GHC.Classes' Prelude> Where is ghc.classes? I looked under the ghc directory and didn't find a classes.hs file.

I tried defining it as such.

instance Ord RPS where ord Scissors `compare` Rock = LT ord Paper `compare` Scissors = LT ord Rock `compare` Paper = LT

But this fails with verry little errors, and I really don't know how I define an instance of Ord for this. I want rock to be less than paper, but greater than scissors, scissors to be less than rock but greater than paper, and paper to be greater than rock but less than scissors. Kind of geeky, but it's one way of learning.

Also, What is the best way to write useful programs, One example I tried is to make a simple guess what I am guessing game, but I couldn't make heads or tails of the IO typeclasses, or the System.Random module. How can I possibly get random numbers and do things on them, and does this mean main must be imperative with a do statement? Thanks, Derek _______________________________________________ Beginners mailing list Beginners@haskell.org http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners

-- Dipl.-Math. Nikita Danilenko Research group: Computer Aided Program Development Kiel University Olshausenstr. 40, D-24098 Kiel Phone: +49 431 880 7275 URL: https://www.informatik.uni-kiel.de/index.php?id=nikita

The first Google result: https://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.8.1.0/docs/Data-Ord.html It says right there that you need to define (at least) either "compare" or "<=", and that there's no "ord" function. Best regards, Marcin Mrotek