CODEWITHSUNDEEP
haskelltype-families
mhwombat
mhwombat

Reputation: 8126

Type families - Couldn't match type

I'm baffled by this compiler error message I'm getting. The functions addAgent and withAgent have similar type signatures and similar implementations, so I don't understand why addAgent compiles but withAgent doesn't. Thank you in advance for any help!

{-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies, FlexibleContexts #-}

import Control.Monad.IO.Class (liftIO)
import Control.Monad.State (StateT, execStateT, gets, modify)

class AgentDatabase d where
  type Elem d
  addAgent :: Elem d -> StateT d IO ()
  withAgent :: 
     (Elem d -> StateT d IO (Elem d)) -> String -> StateT d IO ()

data SimpleUniverse d = SimpleUniverse {
    agentDB :: d
    -- plus other fields
  }

-- I want the methods of class AgentDatabase to "penetrate" through
-- the outer wrapper of SimpleUniverse and operate on the agentDB field.
instance (AgentDatabase d) => 
    AgentDatabase (SimpleUniverse d) where
  type Elem (SimpleUniverse d) = Elem d

  -- When addAgent is invoked on a SimpleUniverse, apply it to the
  -- agentDB field inside.
  addAgent a = do
    db <- gets agentDB
    db' <- liftIO $ execStateT (addAgent a) db
    modify (\u -> u { agentDB=db' } )

  -- When withAgent is invoked on a SimpleUniverse, apply it to the
  -- agentDB field inside.
  withAgent program name = do
    db <- gets agentDB
    db' <- liftIO $ execStateT (withAgent program name) db -- line 33
    modify (\u -> u { agentDB=db' } )

The error message I get is...

amy3.hs:33:11:
    Couldn't match type `d' with `SimpleUniverse d'
      `d' is a rigid type variable bound by
          the instance declaration at amy3.hs:19:25
    When using functional dependencies to combine
      Control.Monad.State.Class.MonadState s (StateT s m),
        arising from the dependency `m -> s'
        in the instance declaration in `Control.Monad.State.Class'
      Control.Monad.State.Class.MonadState
        (SimpleUniverse (SimpleUniverse d)) (StateT (SimpleUniverse d) IO),
        arising from a use of `gets' at amy3.hs:33:11-14
    In a stmt of a 'do' block: db <- gets agentDB
    In the expression:
      do { db <- gets agentDB;
           db' <- liftIO $ execStateT (withAgent program name) db;
           modify (\ u -> u {agentDB = db'}) }
Failed, modules loaded: none.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 294

Answers (1)

Sjoerd Visscher
Sjoerd Visscher

Reputation: 12000

program has type 

Elem (SimpleUniverse d) -> StateT (SimpleUniverse  d) IO (Elem (SimpleUniverse d))

which indeed simplifies, but to

Elem d -> StateT (SimpleUniverse d) IO (Elem d)

and the inner withAgent takes a program of type

Elem d -> StateT d IO (Elem d)

To fix that, this function will help:

stateMap :: Monad m => (s -> t) -> (t -> s) -> StateT s m a -> StateT t m a
stateMap f g (StateT h) = StateT $ liftM (fmap f) . h . g

Upvotes: 2

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