Hello all,
I'm having difficulties understanding rank-2 polymorphism in combination
with overloading. Consider the following contrived definition:
f :: (forall a . Eq a => a -> a -> Bool) -> Bool
f eq = eq True True
Then, we pass f both an overloaded function and a regular polymorphic
function:
x :: forall a . Eq => a -> a -> Bool
x = \x y -> x == y
y :: forall a . a -> a -> Bool
y = \x y -> True
g :: (Bool, Bool)
g = (f x, f y)
Could someone explain to me, or point me to some reading material, why g
is correctly typed?
I understand that x's type is what f expects, but why does y's
polymorphic type fulfill the overloaded type of f's argument? I can
imagine that it is justified since f's argument type is more restrictive
than y's type. However, it requires y to throw away the provided
dictionary under the hood, which seems counter intuitive to me.
Regards,
Thomas
