Updating/understanding code from implicit configurations paper

Reading the implicit configurations paper (Kiselyov & Shan), I couldn't figure out how this bit of code (section 3.2) was meant to work: class Modular s a | s -> a where modulus :: s -> a normalize :: (Modular s a, Integral a) => a -> M s a normalize a :: M s a = M (mod a (modulus (undefined :: s))) Here, `M` is just a type representing a modulus, with a phantom parameter that's going to make the magic happen: data M s a = M a deriving (Eq, Show) Running this in GHC 7.4.2, with the extensions for scope typed variables, multi parameter type classes, and functional dependencies enabled, I get a parse error on the type signature on the LHS of the definition of `normalize`. Having moved the deprecated LHS result annotation to the RHS, I think this should be equivalent: normalize :: (Modular s a, Integral a) => a -> M s a normalize x = (M (mod x (modulus (undefined :: s)))) :: M s a But indeed this won't type-check. I've tried annotating the argument (x :: a) and the result of `modulus` (modulus (undefined :: s) :: a), as well as various other terms, but GHC always tells me the phantom type is ambiguous or the type of the argument of `normalize` can't be unified with the parameter `a` in the result type. Now, like I said, I didn't see how this could work in the first place, so I'm at a loss as to what the problem is. Can someone show me how to get this to compile with a recent version of GHC? I'd also appreciate any insight into what `normalize` is meant to do, if the working code turns out to differ in just a type annotation or two. ... Regards, Eric PS: The literate Haskell version of the paper is here.

On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 3:32 PM, Eric M. Pashman
normalize :: (Modular s a, Integral a) => a -> M s a normalize x = (M (mod x (modulus (undefined :: s)))) :: M s a
If you want your type variables to be scoped, you have to annotate them explicitly: normalize :: forall s a. (Modular s a, Integral a) => a -> M s a normalize x = M (mod x (modulus (undefined :: s))) See http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/7.4.2/html/users_guide/other-type-extensions.... Shachaf

Whoops. I forgot you need the explicit `forall` with scoped type variables. I thought there was something much more involved going on here. Thanks, Shachaf.
Eric
On Jan 18, 2013, at 17:54 , Shachaf Ben-Kiki
On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 3:32 PM, Eric M. Pashman
wrote: normalize :: (Modular s a, Integral a) => a -> M s a normalize x = (M (mod x (modulus (undefined :: s)))) :: M s a
If you want your type variables to be scoped, you have to annotate them explicitly:
normalize :: forall s a. (Modular s a, Integral a) => a -> M s a normalize x = M (mod x (modulus (undefined :: s)))
See http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/7.4.2/html/users_guide/other-type-extensions....
Shachaf
participants (2)
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Eric M. Pashman
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Shachaf Ben-Kiki