[GHC] #8516: Add (->) representation and the Invariant class to GHC.Generics

9 Nov 2013

      #8516: Add (->) representation and the Invariant class to GHC.Generics
----------------------------------------------+----------------------------
       Reporter:  nfrisby                     |             Owner:
           Type:  feature request             |            Status:  new
       Priority:  low                         |         Milestone:
      Component:  Compiler (Type checker)     |           Version:  7.7
       Keywords:                              |  Operating System:
   Architecture:  Unknown/Multiple            |  Unknown/Multiple
     Difficulty:  Moderate (less than a day)  |   Type of failure:
     Blocked By:                              |  None/Unknown
Related Tickets:                              |         Test Case:
                                              |          Blocking:
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 We currently disallow any use of the parameter in the domain of (->).

 {{{
 newtype F a = F ((a -> Int) -> Int) deriving Generic1

 <interactive>:4:38:
     Can't make a derived instance of `Generic1 (F g)':
       Constructor `F' must use the last type parameter only as the last
 argument of a data type, newtype, or (->)
     In the data declaration for `F'
 }}}

 !DeriveFunctor succeeds for this F.

 I'd like to add this representation type to GHC.Generics and
 !DeriveGeneric.

 {{{
 newtype (f :->: g) a = FArrow1 (f a -> g a)
 }}}

 We could then represent the first example above. We could also derive the
 more interesting Generic1 (F g).

 {{{
 newtype F g a = F (g a -> Int) deriving Generic1

 type instance Rep1 (F g) = Rec1 g :->: Rec0 Int

 instance Generic1 (F g) where
   to x = F $ unRec0 . unArrow1 x . Rec1
   from (F x) = FArrow1 $ Rec0 . x . unRec1
 }}}

 Admittedly, there's not many generic definitions impeded by not having
 (:->:). Contra- and in-variant  types are uncommon.

 I'm suggesting this feature without strong motivating examples because I
 think this would streamline the implementation of -XDeriveGenerics in some
 ways while also making it more general — assuming that we added the
 Invariant class to base or ghc-prim.

 {{{
 class Invariant t where
   invmap :: (a -> b) -> (b -> a) -> t a -> t b

 invmap_covariant :: Functor t => (a -> b) -> (b -> a) -> t a -> t b
 invmap_covariant f _ = fmap f

 instance (Invariant f,Invariant g) => Invariant (FArrow f g) where
   invmap co contra (FArrow h) = FArrow $ invmap co contra . h . invmap
 contra co
 }}}

 (Of course, Invariant should be a super class of Functor. :/ )

 Now we can handle quite involved examples:

 {{{
 newtype F g h a = F (g (h a)) deriving Generic1

 instance Invariant g => Generic1 (F g h) where
   to x = invmap unRec1 Rec1 $ unComp1 x
   from (F x) = Comp1 $ invmap Rec1 unRec1
 }}}

 All of that said, I'm mostly opening this ticket so I can get feedback on
 difficulties I might not be anticipating and have a place to reference
 from the compiler source code comments.

--
Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/8516
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