#9432: IncoherentInstances are too restricted -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: danilo2 | Owner: Type: bug | Status: new Priority: high | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: 7.8.2 (Type checker) | Keywords: Resolution: | Architecture: Unknown/Multiple Operating System: | Difficulty: Unknown Unknown/Multiple | Blocked By: Type of failure: | Related Tickets: None/Unknown | Test Case: | Blocking: | Differential Revisions: | -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Description changed by danilo2: Old description:
Hello! The reason behind using `IncoherentInstances`is that we want GHC to commit to a specific instance even if after instantiation of some variables, other instance could be more specific (http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/7.0.4/html/users_guide/type-class- extensions.html). There is one problem though. Lets consider following example (which could not make much sense, but shows the problem well):
{{{#!haskell {-# OPTIONS_GHC -fno-warn-missing-methods #-}
{-# LANGUAGE NoMonomorphismRestriction #-} {-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances #-} {-# LANGUAGE PolyKinds #-} {-# LANGUAGE DeriveDataTypeable #-} {-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-} {-# LANGUAGE IncoherentInstances #-} {-# LANGUAGE ScopedTypeVariables #-}
module Main where
import Data.Typeable
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Type classes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
class InferType a where inferType :: Proxy a -> Proxy a inferType = undefined
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Proxy datatypes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
data Id0 = Id0 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id1 t1 = Id1 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id2 t1 t2 = Id2 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id3 t1 t2 t3 = Id3 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id4 t1 t2 t3 t4 = Id4 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id5 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 = Id5 deriving (Show, Typeable)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Instances --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
instance InferType Int
instance (InferType m, InferType a) => InferType (m a) instance (a~Id0) => InferType (a :: *) instance (a~Id1) => InferType (a :: * -> *) instance (a~Id2) => InferType (a :: * -> * -> *)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Tests -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- toProxy :: a -> Proxy a toProxy _ = Proxy
--inferTypeBase :: a -> Proxy a inferTypeBase a = inferType $ toProxy a
instance InferType Foo1 instance InferType Foo2
tm _ = 5
data Foo1 a = Foo1 a deriving (Show, Typeable) data Foo2 a b = Foo2 a b deriving (Show, Typeable)
instance Monad Id1 -- dummy instances just for tests instance Num Id0
main = do print $ typeOf $ inferType $ toProxy $ (return (5)) print $ typeOf $ inferType $ toProxy $ (5) print $ typeOf $ inferType $ toProxy $ (Foo1 (return 5)) print $ typeOf $ inferType $ toProxy $ (Foo2 (return 5) (return 5))
print "hello"
---- OUTPUT: -- Proxy (Id1 Id0) -- Proxy Id0 -- Proxy (Foo1 (Id1 Id0)) -- Proxy (Foo2 (Id1 Id0) (Id1 Id0)) -- "hello"
}}}
The idea is very simple - replace all unknown type variables with known ones. It works great, but the problem appears with the function `inferTypeBase`. It should have type of `a -> Proxy a`, but GHC claims it has got `Id0 -> Proxy Id0`. It is of course caused by enabled `-XIncoherentInstances` flag, but I think GHC should be more liberal here. If it really cannot pick any instance (causing an error using only `OverlappingInstances`), the `IncoherentInstances` should allow it to pick matching one even if more specific could be available after instantianization. But If no error would occur while using `OverlappingInstances`, `IncoherentInstances` should not affect the way it resolves the instances. I think this would make `IncoherentInstances` much more useful than now. Maybe it would be good to just add some options to the flag?
New description: Hello! The reason behind using `IncoherentInstances`is that we want GHC to commit to a specific instance even if after instantiation of some variables, other instance could be more specific (http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/7.8.2/html/users_guide/type-class- extensions.html). There is one problem though. Lets consider following example (which could not make much sense, but shows the problem well): {{{#!haskell {-# OPTIONS_GHC -fno-warn-missing-methods #-} {-# LANGUAGE NoMonomorphismRestriction #-} {-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances #-} {-# LANGUAGE PolyKinds #-} {-# LANGUAGE DeriveDataTypeable #-} {-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-} {-# LANGUAGE IncoherentInstances #-} {-# LANGUAGE ScopedTypeVariables #-} module Main where import Data.Typeable -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Type classes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- class InferType a where inferType :: Proxy a -> Proxy a inferType = undefined -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Proxy datatypes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- data Id0 = Id0 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id1 t1 = Id1 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id2 t1 t2 = Id2 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id3 t1 t2 t3 = Id3 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id4 t1 t2 t3 t4 = Id4 deriving (Show, Typeable) data Id5 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 = Id5 deriving (Show, Typeable) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Instances -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- instance InferType Int instance (InferType m, InferType a) => InferType (m a) instance (a~Id0) => InferType (a :: *) instance (a~Id1) => InferType (a :: * -> *) instance (a~Id2) => InferType (a :: * -> * -> *) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Tests -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- toProxy :: a -> Proxy a toProxy _ = Proxy --inferTypeBase :: a -> Proxy a inferTypeBase a = inferType $ toProxy a instance InferType Foo1 instance InferType Foo2 tm _ = 5 data Foo1 a = Foo1 a deriving (Show, Typeable) data Foo2 a b = Foo2 a b deriving (Show, Typeable) instance Monad Id1 -- dummy instances just for tests instance Num Id0 main = do print $ typeOf $ inferType $ toProxy $ (return (5)) print $ typeOf $ inferType $ toProxy $ (5) print $ typeOf $ inferType $ toProxy $ (Foo1 (return 5)) print $ typeOf $ inferType $ toProxy $ (Foo2 (return 5) (return 5)) print "hello" ---- OUTPUT: -- Proxy (Id1 Id0) -- Proxy Id0 -- Proxy (Foo1 (Id1 Id0)) -- Proxy (Foo2 (Id1 Id0) (Id1 Id0)) -- "hello" }}} The idea is very simple - replace all unknown type variables with known ones. It works great, but the problem appears with the function `inferTypeBase`. It should have type of `a -> Proxy a`, but GHC claims it has got `Id0 -> Proxy Id0`. It is of course caused by enabled `-XIncoherentInstances` flag, but I think GHC should be more liberal here. If it really cannot pick any instance (causing an error using only `OverlappingInstances`), the `IncoherentInstances` should allow it to pick matching one even if more specific could be available after instantianization. But If no error would occur while using `OverlappingInstances`, `IncoherentInstances` should not affect the way it resolves the instances. I think this would make `IncoherentInstances` much more useful than now. Maybe it would be good to just add some options to the flag? -- -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/9432#comment:3 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler