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Entailment

Entailment

entail: involve (something) as a necessary or inevitable part or consequence: a situation which entails considerable risks.

entail: Check that the current set of type class dictionaries entail the specified type class goal, and, if so, return a type class dictionary reference.

So, it is typeclass related. It arguments:

  • moduleName : ModuleName: FIXME Where it is used?
  • context : M.Map (Maybe ModuleName) (M.Map (Qualified (ProperName 'ClassName)) (M.Map (Qualified Ident) TypeClassDictionaryInScope))
    • Too long name
    • Basically a $module \mapsto (class \mapsto (ident \mapsto dictionary))$
  • Constraint: (Qualified (ProperName 'ClassName), [Type])

So, "type class goal" is the constraint. solve either solve it and return Expr which is a plain–value form of type class.

The Int type work looks interesting to me. If work is too large (>1000), a PossiblyInfiniteInstance error will be triggered. Pay attention to solveSubgoals, which creates dictionaries for subgoals which still need to be solved by calling go recursively. E.g. the goal (Show a, Show b) => Show (Either a b) can be satisfied if the current type unifies with Either a b, and we can satisfy the subgoals Show a and Show b recursively.

One point is the relationship between "super class" and "sub class".

TODO: Maybe I should read the original paper of Haskell to make context a little clearer.

  • overlapping's motivation: Dictionaries which are subclass dictionaries cannot overlap.
  • mkDictionary's branching is interesting: It is used with args, which are returned value of solveSubgoal, and later used as initial part of foldr.
    • If solveSubgoal is passed with no constraints, dictionary value is local
    • If empty args, dictionary value is global
    • If empty args, dictionary value is dependent

So, can you tell me what does solve do?

Every type is checked to satisfy the constraint under the context. Type can be base type $\tau$ or constructed type $\kappa \, \tau$. For the base type, it is simply queried; For the constructed type, we will query its constructor. The constructor might be polymorphic. But the one with instance must be more polymorphic. Beyond that, the typeclass's superclass might bring other constraints, which should be solved.

typeHeadsAreEqual: What is "type heads"? Skolem and TypeConstructor are referred. Row constructor RCons is also used. I think it wants to extract what would be used in type class declaration, i.e. the $\alpha$. The $\alpha$ can be parameterized.