[Haskell-cafe] why do I need class context in declaring data constructor?

30 Aug 2012

      I had a toy program that encodes simply typed lambda in types. It used
to work fine with GHC prior to 7.2. But now it no longer compiles.
Here is a minimal fragment that demonstrates this problem.
...
{-# LANGUAGE GADTs,
    MultiParamTypeClasses,
    FlexibleInstances,
    FlexibleContexts #-}
data Abs env t v where
  Abs :: g (a, env) h v -> Abs env (g (a, env) h v) (a -> v)
class Eval g env t v where
  eval :: env -> g env t v -> v
instance Eval g (a, env) h v =>
         Eval Abs env (g (a, env) h v) (a -> v) where
  eval env (Abs e) = \x -> eval (x, env) e
The type Abs has 3 parameters: its environment, sub term (encoded in
types), and type. The constructor Abs has 1 parameter: its sub term.
The code loads fine in GHC 7.0.3.

Here is the error reported by GHC 7.2.2 (and later):

test.lhs:14:30:
    Could not deduce (Eval g1 (a1, env) h1 v1)
      arising from a use of `eval'
    from the context (Eval g (a, env) h v)
      bound by the instance declaration at test.lhs:(12,12)-(13,49)
    or from (g (a, env) h v ~ g1 (a1, env) h1 v1,
             (a -> v) ~ (a1 -> v1))
      bound by a pattern with constructor
                 Abs :: forall env (g :: * -> * -> * -> *) a h v.
                        g (a, env) h v -> Abs env (g (a, env) h v) (a -> v),
               in an equation for `eval'
      at test.lhs:14:15-19
    Possible fix:
      add (Eval g1 (a1, env) h1 v1) to the context of
        the data constructor `Abs'
        or the instance declaration
      or add an instance declaration for (Eval g1 (a1, env) h1 v1)
    In the expression: eval (x, env) e
    In the expression: \ x -> eval (x, env) e
    In an equation for `eval':
        eval env (Abs e) = \ x -> eval (x, env) e

However, if I move the class context to the data constructor of
definition, then it compiles fine in GHC 7.2.2 (and later):
...
data Abs env t v where
  Abs :: Eval g (a, env) h v => g (a, env) h v -> Abs env (g (a, env) h v) (a -> v)
But this is very troublesome because for every new class instance I
want to make Abs of, I have to make a new class context to the data
constructor. It totally defeats the purpose of making class instances
to extend usage of data types.

Did I missed a language extension when moving code from GHC 7.0.3 to
GHC 7.2.2? What can I do to fix it for newer GHCs?

-- 
Regards,
Paul Liu