Well, if you get an "ambiguous type variable" error, you probably (I think) need to add some type annotations. For example:
class Foo a where foo :: a bar :: a -> String
Evaluating bar foo will result in an error, but bar (foo :: Integer) will work just fine. ____________________
The problem is that I get an incoming value which is a key of some sort. There's no way of knowing what type that value is supposed to be until I compare it with the schema from the above example. where I _am_ adding type annotations. coerceIndex f (Schema _ SInt SPtr _) (r,hdl,o,hdr) = f (r::IdxInt,hdl,o,hdr) coerceIndex f (Schema _ SStr SPtr _) (r,hdl,o,hdr) = f (r::IdxPS,hdl,o,hdr) When I try to add type annotations I get a complaint from the typechecker that says (In the case of the above example) Expected type: Integer, Inferred Type: PackedString. Is the alternative to write different "select" methods for each key type (selectInt, selectPS, ...)? God I hope not, that would be a bit scary.