There is are two oddities with your example that I am confused by.
Code with fundeps is:
data Var a = Var Int (Maybe String) data RHS a b = RHS a b
class Action t a b c | a -> t, a b -> c, a c -> b
instance Action t () y y instance Action t (Var x) (x -> y) y instance (Action t a b c) => Action t (RHS (Var x) a) (x -> b) c instance (Action t a b c) => Action t (RHS [t] a) b c
Any of the the above for instances makes GHC 6.6.1 complain without adding -fallow-undecidable-instances which makes your code a poor test of whether fundeps are translatable to standard type families or associated types. The following instance does not make GHC complain about undecidable instances:
instance Action t [t] y y
The second oddity is in the last two lines. Why not this:
instance (Action tNew a b c) => Action t (RHS (Var x) a) (x -> b) c
instance (Action tNew a b c) => Action t (RHS [t] a) b c
where the t in the constraint is _not_ the t in the instance head. By making
the 't' the same you are also declaring that
A_T a ~ A_T (RHS (Var x) a)
and
A_T a ~ A_T (RHS [t] a)
are going to need to hold. By using tNew this is not required to hold.
I think one can change my earlier proposal to include this, but there are zero
examples of this syntax, so I am likely making up some syntax that does not exist:
type instance (A_T a ~ A_T (RHS (Var x) a)) => A_B_C (RHS (Var x) a) (x->b) =
A_B_C a b
type instance (A_T a ~ A_T (RHS (Var x) a)) => A_C_B (RHS (Var x) a) c = x ->
A_C_B a c
type instance (A_T a ~ A_T (RHS [t] a)) => A_B_C (RHS [t] a) b = A_B_C a b
type instance (A_T a ~ A_T (RHS [t] a)) => A_C_B (RHS [t] a) c = A_C_B a c
With the rest unchanged:
type family A_T a
type family A_B_C a b
type family A_C_B a c
-- You need to help GHC more here:
type instance A_T () =