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ghc-steering-committee@haskell.org

August 2021

9 participants
12 discussions

Scoping of types
by Alejandro Serrano Mena 16 Aug '21

16 Aug '21

Dear Committee, There’s a lot happening right now in the GHC proposals repo about scoping of types in different elements in the language. Richard asked for our decision in #238, but following a very good suggestion from Joachim, I think it’s better to give an overview on what’s going on. In my opinion, this should lead to a consolidation of the different proposals into a unified design. *Current status* In Haskell 2010 there’s no way to refer to type variables introduced in a type signature. For a long time, GHC has shipped with -XScopedTypeVariables, which introduced scoping for types by prepending them with `forall`. We could then use it in other types, or as part of a type application if -XTypeApplications is on. > id :: forall a. a -> a > id x = f @a x > where f y = y In the past 3 years we’ve accepted two proposals which extend this ability: - First to patterns https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/126, so we can write `id @a x = …` - Then to lambdas https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/155, so we can write `id = \@a x -> …` *What is going on* It seems that the accepted proposals were not quite right. We have two on-going proposals to *amend* the current ones: - https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/291 proposes simplifications to type variable patterns. As I understand this would make type variables in patterns behave like term variables (cannot be repeated, occurrences in inner scopes shadow the outer one, and so on). - https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/238 introduces -XTypeAbstractions, which make the combination of `forall` and `\@a` behave “as it should be”. But to be honest, I do not fully grasp the problems before, so neither how this amendment solves the problem; there’s a pointer to the GHC issue tracker where some incompatibility is discussed https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/issues/16734#note_203412 - https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/420 amends the current behaviour of signatures in patterns (what happens if I write `id (x :: a)` ). So we have different ways to introduce new type variables: `f :: forall a. …`, `f @a = …`, `f = \@a -> …`, `f (x :: a) = …`; and it’s very unclear what the scoping mechanism for each one should be. I think the problem is characterised very well in the following comment by Simon PJ https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/291#issuecomment-726715… Note that this problem is arising in other places, too. For example #281, which adds visible `forall a -> ` ( https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/281) is also talking about name resolution (see https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/281#issuecomment-884810… for an example). *How should we proceed* Personally, I am a bit worried about having divergent designs on this matter, and the fact that no fewer than 2 amendments are being proposed (!) For me, the best would be to come up with a unified design of how scoping works for types, covering all possible ways to introduce and resolve them. I am happy to help with this. Another important point seems to be how far we want to get from the current status quo (-XScopedTypeVariables make a type variable in a signature scope in its body, type variables in pattern signatures are always fresh), and how that fits with the overall -XDependentHaskell initiative. Kind regards, Alejandro

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Please review #425: Invisible binders in type declarations, Shepherd: Richard
by Joachim Breitner 14 Aug '21

14 Aug '21

Dear Committee, this is your secretary speaking: Invisible binders in type declarations has been proposed by Vladislav https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/425 https://github.com/serokell/ghc-proposals/blob/decl-invis-binders/proposals… I propose Richard as the shepherd, simply because he already scrutinized the proposal on Github. Maybe that is a bit unfair: One could find it unfair towards other committee members that they get fewer proposals assigned. Or unfair towards Richard that he gets penalized for engaging with the community. Up to your point of view. Best way to fix that would be if more committee members are actively engaging with proposals even before they are being submitted. Please guide us to a conclusion as outlined in https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals#committee-process Thanks, Joachim -- Joachim Breitner mail(a)joachim-breitner.de http://www.joachim-breitner.de/

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