[Haskell-cafe] What monad am I in?

2 Sep 2008

      Dear Group,

When I fire up ghci and define:

increment x = return (x+1)

I can say:
Main> increment 1

and ghci dutifully replies 2. Also as expected, the type signature of 
increment is:  (Num a, Monad m) => a -> m a

However, if I say:

Main> let a = increment 1

I get:

<interactive>:1:8:
    Ambiguous type variable `m' in the constraint:
      `Monad m' arising from a use of `increment' at <interactive>:1:8-18
    Probable fix: add a type signature that fixes these type variable(s)

Have I, like Monsier Jourdain, been running in the IO monad all my
life, and didn't even know it?

Thanks,
Henry Laxen