kind-generics: Generic programming in GHC style for arbitrary kinds and GADTs.
This package provides functionality to extend the data type generic programming functionality in GHC to classes of arbitrary kind, and constructors featuring constraints and existentials, as usually found in GADTs.
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Dependencies | base (>=4.12 && <5), first-class-families (>=0.8 && <0.9), kind-apply (>=0.4 && <0.5) [details] |
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Author | Alejandro Serrano |
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Readme for kind-generics-0.5.0.0
[back to package description]kind-generics
: generic programming for arbitrary kinds and GADTs
Note: This README is a work in progress. The most up-to-date version of this document can be found in GitLab.
Data type-generic programming in Haskell is restricted to types of kind *
(by using Generic
) or * -> *
(by using Generic1
). This works fine for implementing generic equality or generic printing, notions which are applied to types of kind *
. But what about having a generic Bifunctor
or Contravariant
? We need to extend our language for describing data types to other kinds -- hopefully without having to introduce Generic2
, Generic3
, and so on.
The language for describing data types in GHC.Generics
is also quite restricted. In particular, it can only describe algebraic data types, not the full extent of GADTs. It turns out that both problems are related: if you want to describe a constructor of the form forall a. blah
, then blah
must be a data type which takes one additional type variable. As a result, we need to enlarge and shrink the kind at will.
This library, kind-generics
, provides a new type class GenericK
and a set of additional functors Field
, (:=>:)
(for constraints), and Exists
(for existentials) which extend the language of GHC.Generics
. We have put a lot of effort in coming with a simple programming experience, even though the implementation is full of type trickery.
Simple usage of kind-generics
Generic operations require conversion from and to generic representations to be supplied by the programmer. Within this library, such operations are represented by a set of GenericK
instances, one per possible partial application of the data type. You don't have to write those instances manually, though, most of them can be derived automatically.
Derivation using kind-generics-th
The simplest, and at the same time the most powerful, way to get your GenericK
instances is to use the facilities provided by the kind-generics-th
package. For example:
{-# language TemplateHaskell #-} -- this should be at the top of the file
data Tree a = Branch (Tree a) (Tree a) | Leaf a
$(deriveGenericK ''Tree)
By doing so, two instances are generated:
instance GenericK Tree where ...
instance GenericK (Tree a) where ...
Derivation from GHC.Generics
The other possibility is to obtain GenericK
instances from the built-in support in GHC. In order to use those facilities, your data type must implement the Generic
type class. Fortunately, GHC can automatically derive such instances for algebraic data types. For example:
{-# language DeriveGeneric #-} -- this should be at the top of the file
data Tree a = Branch (Tree a) (Tree a) | Leaf a
deriving Generic -- this is the magical line
From this Generic
instance, kind-generics
can derive another one for its very own GenericK
. It needs one additional piece of information, though: the description of the data type in the enlarged language of descriptions. The reason for this is that Generic
does not distinguish whether the type of a field mentions one of the type variables (a
in this case) or not. But GenericK
requires so.
Let us look at the GenericK
instance for Tree
:
instance GenericK Tree where
type RepK Tree = (Field (Tree :$: Var0) :*: Field (Tree :$: Var0))
:+: (Field Var0)
instance GenericK (Tree a) where
type RepK (Tree a) = SubstRep (RepK Tree) a
fromK = fromRepK
toK = toRepK
In this case we have two constructors, separated by (:+:)
. The first constructor has two fields, tied together by (:*:)
. In the description of each field is where the difference with GHC.Generics
enters the game: you need to describe each piece which makes us the type. In this case Tree :$: Var0
says that the type constructor Tree
is applied to the first type variable. Type variables, in turn, are represented by zero-indexed Var0
, Var1
, and so on.
Putting GenericK
instances to work
You can finally use the functionality from kind-generics
and derive some type classes automatically. Those derivations are found in a separate package kind-generics-deriving
:
import Generics.Kind.Derive.Eq
import Generics.Kind.Derive.FunctorOne
instance Eq a => Eq (Tree a) where
(==) = geq'
instance Functor Tree where
fmap = fmapDefaultOne
Type variables in a list: LoT
and (:@@:)
Let us have a closer look at the definition of the GenericK
type class. If you have been using other data type-generic programming libraries you might recognize RepK
as the generalized version of Rep
, which ties a data type with its description, and the pair of functions fromK
and toK
to go back and forth the original values and their generic counterparts.
class GenericK (f :: k) where
type family RepK f :: LoT k -> *
fromK :: f :@@: x -> RepK f x
toK :: RepK f x -> f :@@: x
But what are those LoT
and (:@@:)
which appear there? That is indeed the secret sauce which makes the whole kind-generics
library work. The name LoT
comes from list of types. It is a type-level version of a regular list, where the (:)
constructor is replaced by (:&&:)
and the empty list is represented by LoT0
. For example:
Int :&&: [Bool] :&&: LoT0 -- a list with two basic types
Int :&&: [] :&&: LoT0 -- type constructor may also appear
What can you do with such a list of types? You can pass them as type arguments to a type constructor. This is the role of (:@@:)
(which you can pronounce of, or application). For example:
Either :@@: (Int :&&: Bool :&&: LoT0) = Either Int Bool
Free :@@: ([] :&&: Int :&&: LoT0) = Free [] Int
Int :@@: LoT0 = Int
Wait, you cannot apply any list of types to any constructor! Something like Maybe []
is rejected by the compiler, and so should we reject Maybe ([] :&&: LoT0)
. To prevent such problems, the list of types is decorated with the kinds of all the types inside of it. Going back to the previous examples:
Int :&&: [Bool] :&&: LoT0 :: LoT (* -> * -> *)
Int :&&: [] :&&: LoT0 :: LoT (* -> (* -> *) -> *)
The application operator (:@@:)
only allows us to apply a list of types of kind k
to types constructors of the same kind. The shared variable in the head of the type class enforces this invariant also in our generic descriptions.
Views of a data type
When the type has more than one type parameter, you can break it in different ways. For example, here are all the ways in which Either Bool Int
could be split in a head and a list of types:
Either :@@: (Bool :&&: Int :&&: LoT0)
Either Bool :@@: (Int :&&: LoT0)
Either Bool Int :@@: LoT0
Different generic operations require different views on data types. That is, they require the list of types which is applied to the head to have a particular length. For example, Eq
views data types as nullary, whereas Functor
requires list of types of length 1. You can relate this to the fact that in GHC.Generics
generic equality uses the Generic
class, but generic functors use Generic1
.
For a productive usage of kind-generics
, you should provide as many views of your data type as you can. In the case of Either
this entails writing the following instances:
instance GenericK Either where ...
instance GenericK (Either a) where ...
instance GenericK (Either a b) where ...
Sometimes it is not possible to write all of these instances, due to restrictions in GHC's type system. The kind-generics-th
package contains a thorough description of these limitations.
Describing fields: the functor Field
As mentioned in the introduction, kind-generics
features a more expressive language to describe the types of the fields of data types. We call the description of a specific type an atom. The language of atoms reproduces the ways in which you can build a type in Haskell:
- You can have a constant type
t
, which is represented byKon t
. - You can mention a variable, which is represented by
Var0
,Var1
, and so on. For those interested in the internals, there is a generalVar v
wherev
is a type-level number. The library provides the synonyms for ergonomic reasons. - You can take two types
f
andx
and apply one to the other,f :@: x
.
For example, suppose the a
is the name of the first type variable and b
the name of the second. Here are the corresponding atoms:
a -> Var0
Maybe a -> Kon Maybe :@: Var0
Either b a -> Kon Either :@: Var1 :@: Var0
b (Maybe a) -> Var1 :@: (Kon Maybe :@: Var0)
Since the Kon f :@: x
pattern is very common, kind-generics
also allows you to write it as simply f :$: x
. The names (:$:)
and (:@:)
are supposed to resemble (<$>)
and (<*>)
from the Applicative
type class.
The kind of an atom is described by two pieces of information, Atom d k
. The first argument d
specifies the amount of variables that it uses. The second argument k
tells you the kind of the type you obtain if you replace the variable markers Var0
, Var1
, ... by actual types. For example:
Var0 -> Atom (k -> ks) k
Var1 :@: (Maybe :$: Var0) -> Atom (* -> (* -> *) -> ks) (*)
In the first example, if you tell me the value of the variable a
regardless of the kind k
, the library can build a type of kind k
. In the second example, the usage requires the first variable to be a ground type, and the second one to be a one-parameter type constructor. If you give those types, the library can build a type of kind *
.
This operation we have just described is embodied by the Interpret
type family. A call looks like Interpret atom lot
, where atom
is an atom and lot
a list of types which matches the requirements of the atom. We speak of interpreting the atom
. Going back to the previous examples:
Interpret Var0 Int = Int
Interpret Var1 :@: (Maybe :$: Var0) (Bool :&&: [] :&&: LoT0) = [Maybe Bool]
This bridge is used in the first of the pattern functors that kind-generics
add to those from GHC.Generics
. The pattern functor Field
is used to represent fields in a constructor, where the type is represented by an atom. Compare its definition with the K1
type from GHC.Generics
:
newtype Field (t :: Atom d (*)) (x :: LoT d)
= Field { unField :: Interpret t x }
newtype K1 i (t :: *) = K1 { unK1 :: t }
At the term level there is almost no difference in the usage, except for the fact that fields are wrapped in the Field
constructor instead of K1
.
instance GenericK Tree where
type RepK Tree = (Field (Tree :$: Var0) :*: Field (Tree :$: Var0))
:+: (Field Var0)
fromK (Branch l r) = L1 (Field l :*: Field r)
fromK (Node x) = R1 (Field x)
On the other hand, separating the atom from the list of types gives us the ability to interpret the same atom with different list of types. This is paramount to classes like Functor
, in which the same type constructor is applied to different type variables.
Functors for GADTS: (:=>:)
and Exists
Generalised Algebraic Data Types, GADTs for short, extend the capabilities of Haskell data types. Once the extension is enabled, constructor gain the ability to constrain the set of allowed types, and to introduce existential types. Here is an extension of the previously-defined Tree
type to include an annotation in every leaf, each of them with possibly a different type, and also require Show
for the a
s:
data WeirdTree a where
WeirdBranch :: WeirdTree a -> WeirdTree a -> WeirdTree a
WeirdLeaf :: Show a => t -> a -> WeirdTree a
The family of pattern functors V1
, U1
, Field
, (:+:)
, and (:*:)
is not enough. Let us see what other things we use in the representation of WeirdTree
:
instance GenericK WeirdTree where
type RepK WeirdTree
= Field (WeirdTree :$: Var0) :*: Field (WeirdTree :$: Var0)
:+: Exists (*) ((Show :$: Var1) :=>: (Field Var0 :*: Field Var1))
Here the (:=>:)
pattern functor plays the role of =>
in the definition of the data type. It reuses the same notion of atoms from Field
, but requiring those atoms to give back a constraint instead of a ground type.
But wait a minute! You have just told me that the first type variable is represented by Var0
, and in the representation above Show a
is transformed into Show :$: Var1
, what is going on? This change stems from Exists
, which represents existential quantification. Whenever you go inside an Exists
, you gain a new type variable in your list of types. This new variable is put at the front of the list of types, shifting all the other one position. In the example above, inside the Exists
the atom Var0
points to t
, and Var1
points to a
. This approach implies that inside nested existentials the innermost variable corresponds to head of the list of types Var0
.
In most cases, GenericK
instances for GADTs can be derived by kind-generics-th
. Just for the record, here is how one of such GenericK
instances looks like:
instance GenericK WeirdTree where
type RepK WeirdTree = ...
fromK (WeirdBranch l r) = L1 $ Field l :*: Field r
fromK (WeirdLeaf a x) = R1 $ Exists $ SuchThat $ Field a :*: Field x
toK ...
You just need to apply the Exists
and SuchThat
constructors every time there is an existential or constraint, respectively. However, since the additional information required by those types is implicitly added by the compiler, you do not need to write anything else.
Atoms for families: Eval
If a field contains a type family application, it can be represented by defunctionalization. For example:
type family F a
data T a = C (F a)
F
can be defunctionalized as follows, using Fcf.Eval
from
first-class-families
.
data DF a
type Fcf.Eval (DF a) = F a
All type family applications can thus be rewritten as the application of one
common Fcf.Eval
to a matchable application. This can then be represented by
one Atom
constructor, also named Eval
:
instance GenericK T where
type RepK T = Field (Eval (Kon DF :@: Var0))
fromK (C x) = Field x
toK (Field x) = C x
kind-generics-th
can generate GenericK
instances for such types involving
type families. It also takes care of defunctionalizing type families as needed,
following a more sophisticated approach than described above, that avoids
declaring lots of artificial data types. For more details, see
fcf-family
and the documentation of kind-generics-th
.
Implementing a generic operation with kind-generics
The last stop in our journey through kind-generics
is being able to implement a generic operation. At this point we assume that the reader is comfortable with the definition of generic operations using GHC.Generics
, so only the differences with that style are pointed out.
As an example, we are going to write a generic Show
. Using GHC.Generics
style, you create a type class whose instances are the corresponding pattern functors:
class GShow (f :: * -> *) where
gshow :: f x -> String
instance GShow U1 ...
instance Show t => GShow (K1 i t) ...
instance (GShow f, GShow g) => GShow (f :+: g) ...
instance (GShow f, GShow g) => GShow (f :*: g) ...
Introducing a requirements constraint
Let's start from the code above. When using kind-generics
pattern functors are no longer of kind * -> *
, but of the more general form LoT k -> *
. So our first approach to GShow
looks like:
class GShow (f :: LoT k -> *) where
gshow :: f x -> String
We can already provide a proxy function which performs the conversion to the generic representation and then calls the generic operation. A very common scenario is that GHC cannot infer the correct type arguments to fromK
, but we can always help by providing explicit type applications.
{-# language TypeApplications #-}
gshow' :: forall t. (GenericK t LoT0, GShow (RepK t))
=> t -> String
gshow' = gshow . fromK @_ @t @LoT0
However, we are stuck when we want to write the instance for Field
. In the case of GHC.Generics
, the instance for fields calls the Show
class recursively:
instance Show t => GShow (K1 i t) ...
But here we cannot do this. The reason is that we need to provide Show
with a type. In order to turn an atom, as wrapped by Field
, into a type we need a list of types. However, the list of types not provided until later, in the call to gshow
. The trick is to introduce an additional requirements constraint:
class GShow (f :: LoT k -> *) where
type family ReqsShow f (x :: LoT k) :: Constraint
gshow :: ReqsShow f x => f x -> String
gshow' :: forall t. (GenericK t LoT0
, GShow (RepK t), ReqsShow (RepK t) LoT0)
=> t -> String
gshow' = gshow . fromK @_ @t @LoT0
Now in the Field
instance we can express the requirements for a specific atom:
instance GShow (Field t) where
type ReqsShow (Field t) x = Show (Interpret t x)
gshow = ...
Adding this constraint involves some work also on the rest of pattern functors, because we need to produce requirements for all of them. How to build them changes from generic operation to generic operation, but in general has the following structure:
instance GShow U1 where
type ReqsShow U1 x = ()
instance (GShow f, GShow g) => GShow (f :+: g) where
type ReqsShow (f :+: g) x = (ReqsShow f x, ReqsShow g x)
instance (GShow f, GShow g) => GShow (f :*: g) where
type ReqsShow (f :*: g) x = (ReqsShow f x, ReqsShow g x)
In theory, the requirements for (:=>:)
would take into account that the SuchThat
constructor introduces additional constraints into place. Thus one would write:
instance GShow f => GShow (c :=>: f) where
type ReqsShow (c :=>: f) x = (Interpret c x => ReqsShow f x)
Unfortunately, this is currently rejected by GHC: type families cannot return a qualified type. The only option for now is to use the more restrictive version:
instance GShow f => GShow (c :=>: f) where
type ReqsShow (c :=>: f) x = ReqsShow f x
However, that means that this version of GShow
cannot be used with the WeirdTree
data type defined above. In that case, the Show a
instance introduced in WeirdLeaf
would not be accounted for. This is not the only limitation of the requirements constraint approach: existentials in constructors cannot be handled either.
Using an explicit list of types
A more powerful approach to using kind-generics
is to separate the head of a type from its type arguments. That means extending the class with a new parameter, and reworking the basic cases to include that argument.
class GShow (f :: LoT k -> *) (x :: LoT k) where
gshow :: f x -> String
instance GShow U1 x ...
instance (GShow f x, GShow g x) => GShow (f :+: g) x ...
instance (GShow f x, GShow g x) => GShow (f :*: g) x ...
Now we have the three new constructors. Let us start with Field atom
: when is it Show
able? Whenever the interpretation of the atom, with the given list of types, satisfies the Show
constraint. We can use the type family Interpret
to express this fact:
instance (Show (Interpret t x)) => GShow (Field t) x where
gshow (Field x) = show x
In the case of existential constraints we do not need to enforce any additional constraints. However, we need to extend our list of types with a new one for the existential. We can do that using the QuantifiedConstraints
extension introduced in GHC 8.6:
{-# language QuantifiedConstraints #-}
instance (forall (t :: k). Show f (t :&&: x)) => GShow (Exists k f) x where
gshow (Exists x) = gshow x
The most interesting case is the one for constraints. If we have a constraint in a constructor, we know that by pattern matching on it we can use the constraint. In other words, we are allowed to assume that the constraint at the left-hand side of (:=>:)
holds when trying to decide whether GShow
does. This is again allowed by the QuantifiedConstraints
extension:
{-# language QuantifiedConstraints #-}
instance (Interpret c x => GShow f x) => GShow (c :=>: f) x where
gshow (SuchThat x) = gshow x
Note that sometimes we cannot implement a generic operation for every GADT. One example is generic equality: when faced with two values of a constructor with an existential, we cannot move forward, since we have no way of knowing if the types enclosed by each value are the same or not.
Working with a position
This final section gives an overview of the changes required to bring automatic derivation of Functor
from GHC.Generics
to kind-generics
. In the generics-deriving
library, the corresponding GFunctor
class reads as follows:
class GFunctor f where
gmap :: (a -> b) -> f a -> f b
Following the approach outlined above, we need to reify the arguments to f
as additional parameters to the type class. Since f
appears applied to two different arguments, we get not one but two parameters in the type class.
class GFunctor (f :: LoT k -> *) (as :: LoT k) (bs :: LoT k) where ...
The problem now is that as
and bs
are lists of types. But the functor action only works over the last one (in general, only over one position). So how do we express the type of gmap
? We can use a TyVar
to specify that position, and the interpret it over the list of types. Since the new variable v
appears only as argument to a type family, we need some kind of Proxy
type to make GHC happy, or to enable the AllowAmbiguousTypes
extension and work around the lack of inference with type applications.
class GFunctor (f :: LoT k -> *) (v :: TyVar d *) (as :: LoT k) (bs :: LoT k) where
gmap :: (Interpret (Var v) as -> Interpret (Var v) bs)
-> f as -> f bs
This additional TyVar
is not only needed to write the type of gmap
. Also, if we want to handle the case of constructors with existentials, we need to account for the change of index for the variable.
instance (forall (t :: k). GFunctor f (VS v) (t :&&: as) (t :&&: bs))
=> GFunctor (Exists k f) v as bs where ...
We have seen three ways of handling generic operations in kind-generics
:
- Introducing a requirements constraint. This is the simpler one, and code stays almost verbatim from a
GHC.Generics
implementation. However, we cannot support existentials or constraints. - Using an explicit list of types. In this case the code can also be copied almost verbatim from a
GHC.Generics
implementations. The type class implementing the generic operation is enlarged with additional parameters to account for the lists of types which are applied in the operations. With this approach we can handle almost any operation which consumes a value of a GADT. - Explicit list of types + position. When defining generic operations over higher-rank types -- like
Functor
-- it is usually required to have an additional parameter in the type class to account for the position (or positions) which are affected by the operation. We need to do so because going under theExists
constructor shifts the indices of the variables.
Inspecting atoms
The implementation of GFunctor
follows the general pattern of calling gmap
recursively when you find sums, products, constraints, or existentials. The complex part comes in the handling of fields: at that point we need to figure out whether the atom in that field mentions the specific variable we are mapping over, so we can apply the corresponding function. Take for example the representation of Either
:
type RepK Either = Field Var0 :+: Field Var1
If we want to implement the usual fmap
, we need to map over Var1
, but not over Var0
. This section shows the technique required to do so. Luckily, the very strong types guarantee that we don't make a mistake.
In order to distinguish the shape of the atoms we need to introduce another type class, GFunctorField
. It looks pretty much like GFunctor
, with the difference that its first argument is an atom instead of a pattern functor. In turn, this means that in the type signature of its methods we need to interpret the atom to turn it into a type. Here are the two type classes side by side:
class GFunctorField (t :: Atom k (*)) (v :: TyVar d *) (as :: LoT k) (bs :: LoT k) where
gmapf :: (Interpret (Var v) as -> Interpret (Var v) bs)
-> Interpret t as -> Interpret t bs
-- compare with
class GFunctor (f :: LoT k -> *) (v :: TyVar d *) (as :: LoT k) (bs :: LoT k) where
gmap :: (Interpret (Var v) as -> Interpret (Var v) bs)
-> f as -> f bs
If we assume that we satisfy the GFunctorField
constraint for a given atom, we can write the GFunctor
instance for the field constructor. Note that we have used explicit type applications because many of these types are ambiguous and cannot be resolved otherwise:
instance forall t v as bs. GFunctorField t v as bs
=> GFunctorPos (Field t) v as bs where
gmap f (Field x) = Field (gmapf @_ @t @v @as @bs f x)
This pattern is very common when dealing with generic derivation of operations for types which are not of kind *
: introduce first a type class for the pattern functors, and then another one with each specific shape of Field
you may have. Now the question turns into how to write each of the instances of GFunctorField
.
Let's begin with the simplest one. If we have a constant, we know we don't need to apply any function to it. So gmapf
is effectively just the identity function:
instance GFunctorField (Kon t) v as bs where
gfmappf _ = id
Another case we can handle is an type application of the form f x
, provided that f
is a functor and we recursively know how to map over x
. Think of a data type similar to rose trees:
data Rose a = a :<: [Rose a]
If we would write the functor instance by hand, in the case of the field of type [Rose a]
, we would fmap
over the list, using as argument the recursive fmap
over Rose
. The same pattern is captured with the following instance:
instance forall f x v as bs.
( Functor (Interpret f as), Interpret f as ~ Interpret f bs
, GFunctorField x v as bs )
=> GFunctorField (f :@: x) v as bs where
gmapf f x = fmap (gmapf @_ @x @v @as @bs f) x
Ok, a bit more is happening than we I have just stated. The additional requirement Interpret f as ~ Interpret f bs
forces the type constructor being applied to remain constant. This covers the case of [Rose a]
being mapped to [Rose b]
, since the type constructor is []
regardless of the type of its elements. However, kind-generics
makes it possible to express more exotic types such as Var1 :@: Var0
; in that case we are only able to construct the generic mapping operation if the argument to Var1
is the same in both the input and output lists of kinds.
We come to the most important case: how to handle variables. The idea is quite simple: we want to apply the function only if the atom is the same variable as the one we intended to map over. Otherwise, the gmap
function should keep the field as it was. A first approach would be to use the following two instances:
instance {-# OVERLAPS #-} GFunctorField (Var v) v as bs where ...
instance {-# OVERLAPPABLE #-} GFunctorField (Var v) w as bs where ...
The problem is that we require overlapping instances, which lead to brittle type checking, and are commonly regarded as a construct to avoid if possible. Fortunately, we can work around this problem in two different ways:
Preventing overlapping with more instances
Let us think for a moment how we would compare two type variables if we were writing the function in usual term-level Haskell. Usually the two final equations would be written with a catch-all pattern, but here it's important to have non-overlapping equations.
compareTyVar :: TyVar d k -> TyVar d k -> Bool
compareTyVar VZ VZ = True
compareTyVar (VS v) (VS w) = compareTyVar v w
compareTyVar (VS v) VZ = False
compareTyVar VZ (VS w) = False
Each of these branches can be translated into an instance of GFunctorField
. Note that the shape of the second argument limits the shape of the lists of types given afterwards, and this is reflected in the instances:
-- case VZ / VZ -> apply the function
instance GFunctorField (Var VZ) VZ (a :&&: as) (b :&&: bs) where
gmapf f x = f x
-- case VS v / VS w -> recur
instance forall v w r as s bs. GFunctorField (Var v) w as bs
=> GFunctorField (Var (VS v)) (VS w) (r :&&: as) (s :&&: bs) where
gmapf f x = gmapf @d @(Var v) @w @as @bs f x
-- cases for different head constructors
instance GFunctorField (Var VZ) (VS w) (r :&&: as) (r :&&: bs) where
gmapf _ = id
instance GFunctorField (Var (VS v)) VZ (r :&&: LoT0) (r :&&: LoT0) where
gmapf _ = id
Preventing overlapping using a type family
If you are not afraid of throwing more machinery at the problem, there's another approach to solve this problem. Checking for equality of types is brittle when used in the head of a type class. However, closed type families provide this ability in a well-behaved way:
type family EqualTyVar (v :: TyVar d (*)) (w :: TyVar d (*)) :: Bool where
EqualTyVar v v = True
EqualTyVar v w = False
So what we can do is to introduce (yet) another type class which dispatches based on the result of applying EqualTyVar
to the two involved type variables.
class GFunctorVar (v :: TyVar d *) (w :: TyVar d *)
(as :: LoT d) (bs :: LoT d)
(equal :: Bool) where
gmapv :: (Interpret (Var w) as -> Interpret (Var w) bs)
-> Interpret (Var v) as -> Interpret (Var v) bs
We have two cases: if the equal
parameter is True
, we know by construction that v
and w
are equal. Haskell's type system is not strong enough to carry this evidence, but we can force this to happen using a type equality constraint. So the following instance corresponds (finally) to the case in which we need to apply the function to the argument:
instance v ~ w => GFunctorVar v w as bs True where
gmapv f x = f x
In the other case we know by construction that interpreting Var v
should result in the same type, since we are not mapping over it. Once again, we cannot bring the evidence from EqualTyVar
to this point, but we can force GHC to check that it is the case using a type equality constraint:
instance (Interpret (Var v) as ~ Interpret (Var v) bs)
=> GFunctorVar v w as bs False where
gmapv _ = id
The last question is: how do we tell GFunctorField
to use the result of EqualTyVar
to choose an instance? We simply call the type family in the instance
declaration:
instance forall v w as bs. GFunctorVar v w as bs (EqualTyVar v w)
=> GFunctorField (Var v) w as bs where
gmapf = gmapv @_ @v @w @as @bs @(EqualTyVar v w)
Adding this instance requires the UndecidableInstances
extension, because GHC cannot guarantee resolution will terminate (as far as the compiler knows, EqualTyVar
could be doing arbitrary computation). For that reason, I personally prefer to use the previous approach.
More tricks for Functor
The implementation of GFunctor
outlined above is correct, but could be more expensive that a hand-written one. For example, if you have a field of type [[Int]]
, the implementation you get is equivalent to fmap (fmap id)
: two levels of fmap
corresponding to the two nested lists, and id
because Int
is a constant. But a programmer would just notice that the entire field never mentions a type variable, and would write id
directly.
If you look at the implementation of GFunctor
in kind-generics-deriving
(called GFunctorPosition
in that library), you will notice a call to ContainsTyVar
in the instance for Field
. The role of this parameter is to short-cut evaluation in those cases. So before going into the GFunctorField
recursive structure, we check whether the field mentions the type variable we are interested in.
Conclusion and limitations
The kind-generics
library extends the support for data type-generic programming from GHC.Generics
to account for kinds different from *
and * -> *
and for GADTs. We have tried to reuse as much of the machinery as possible -- including V1
, U1
, (:+:)
, and (:*:)
. Furthermore, we provide both Template Haskell-based and Generic
-based derivation of the required GenericK
instances.
Although we can now express a larger amount of types and operations, not all Haskell data types are expressible in this language. In particular, we cannot have dependent kinds, like in the following data type:
data Proxy k (d :: k) = Proxy
because the kind of the second argument d
refers to the first argument k
.