[Haskell-cafe] Equality constraints and RankNTypes - how do I assist type inference

20 Aug 2010

      Hi,

I have the following code, using equality constraints and (I believe) RankNTypes:

{-# LANGUAGE MultiParamTypeClasses, TypeFamilies,
       RankNTypes, ExistentialQuantification #-}
{-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances, TypeSynonymInstances #-}

-- import Math.Algebra.Group.PermutationGroup

-- Vector space over field k with basis b
data Vect k b = V [(b,k)] deriving (Eq,Show)

data TensorBasis a b = T a b deriving (Eq, Ord, Show)

-- Tensor product of two vector spaces
type Tensor u v =
    (u ~ Vect k a, v ~ Vect k b) => Vect k (TensorBasis a b) -- **

class Algebra k v where -- "v is a k-algebra"
    unit :: k -> v
    mult :: Tensor v v -> v

type GroupAlgebra k = Vect k Int -- (Permutation Int)

instance Num k => Algebra k (GroupAlgebra k) where
    unit 0 = V []
    unit x = V [(1,x)]
    mult (V ts) = V [(g*h,x) | (T g h, x) <- ts]

Everything is fine except for the last line,
which causes the following error message:

    Couldn't match expected type `Tensor
                                    (GroupAlgebra k) (GroupAlgebra k)'
           against inferred type `Vect k1 b'
    In the pattern: V ts
    In the definition of `mult':
        mult (V ts) = V [(g * h, x) | (T g h, x) <- ts]
    In the instance declaration for `Algebra k (GroupAlgebra k)'

But according to me, I've told it that these two types are the same at the line
marked -- **
How do I help it out with type inference? (It, in this case, is GHCi 6.12.1)

Any ideas?

[Haskell-cafe] Equality constraints and RankNTypes - how do I assist type inference

DavidA