First-class type families
First-class type families are type-level functions that can be
composed using higher-order functions.
The core of the idea is an extensible kind of "type-level expressions"
and an open type family for evaluating such expressions.
type Exp (k :: Type) :: Type
type family Eval (e :: Exp k) :: k
This library provides that core foundation,
and also exports basic first-class type families.
Example
For example, consider this simple type family:
type family FromMaybe (a :: k) (m :: Maybe k) :: k
type instance FromMaybe a 'Nothing = a
type instance FromMaybe a ('Just b) = b
With first-class-families (fcfs), it translates to a data
declaration
and instances for a single Eval
family:
import Fcf
data FromMaybe :: k -> Maybe k -> Exp k
type instance Eval (FromMaybe a 'Nothing) = a
type instance Eval (FromMaybe a ('Just b)) = b
That way, the FromMaybe
constructor can be partially applied,
and passed to higher-order fcfs such as Map
:
Eval (Map (FromMaybe 0) '[ 'Just 1, 'Nothing ]) = '[ 1, 0 ] :: [Nat]
Essential language extensions:
{-# LANGUAGE
DataKinds,
PolyKinds,
TypeFamilies,
TypeInType,
TypeOperators,
UndecidableInstances #-}
Overview
Fcf.Core
: definition of Exp
and Eval
.
Fcf.Combinators
: general combinators to compose first-class families.
Fcf.Data.*
: first-class families on common data types.
Fcf.Class.*
: overloaded first-class families.
Fcf.Utils
: miscellaneous.
The top-level module Fcf
is a prelude to get acquainted with the library.
For regular use, import what you need from the specialized modules
above, preferably with explicit import lists.
import Fcf -- Simple but fragile
import Fcf.Class.Functor (FMap) -- Explicit and robust
Features
Overloaded type families
Value-level functions can be overloaded using type classes.
Type families---type-level functions---are open by design,
so overloading is as easy as just declaring them with more general types.
data Map :: (a -> Exp b) -> f a -> Exp (f b)
-- Instances for f = []
type instance Eval (Map f '[]) = '[]
type instance Eval (Map f (x ': xs)) = Eval (f x) ': Eval (Map f xs)
-- Instances for f = Maybe
type instance Eval (Map f 'Nothing) = 'Nothing
type instance Eval (Map f ('Just x)) = 'Just (Eval (f x))
See also
Contributions are welcome. Feel free to open an issue or make a PR on
Github!