Yves Parès wrote:
takeC :: Int -> Compoz a b -> (exists c. Compoz a c)
dropC :: Int -> Compoz a b -> (exists c. Compoz c b)
What does 'exists' means? To create a rank-2 type can't you use:
takeC :: Int -> Compoz a b -> (forall c. Compoz a c)
??
Ah, (exists c. Compoz a c) means "There exists a type c such that
the whole thing has type Compoz a c ".
What you describe would be the type "For any type c the whole thing
can be treated as having type Compoz a c " which is something entirely
different.
The point is that in the former version, the function takeC determines
what the type c should be and the caller has no clue what it is. In
the latter version, the function that calls takeC can choose which
type it should be.
What I wrote is *not* legal Haskell. (At least not in GHC. If I remember
correctly, the EHC from Utrecht supports first-class existential
quantification ). You have to encode it in some way, for instance with a
data type
data Exists f = forall c . Exists (f c)
takeC :: Int -> Compoz a b -> Exists (Compoz a)
Regards,
Heinrich Apfelmus
--
http://apfelmus.nfshost.com
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