[m-users.] Error instance Mercury

[Julien Fischer]

Hi Maxime,

On Tue, 26 Jun 2018, Maxime Gautin wrote:

> I have a compilation fail with the code I am studying. It is about an instance
> 
> :- type token_list == list(token).
> 
> :- instance parser_state(token_list) where [
> 
>         get_token(end,[],[]),
>         get_token(T,[T | Ts], Ts),
> 
>         unget_token(T, Ts) = [T | Ts]
> ].
> 
> token is a type defined on another file.
> 
> The typeclass is also declared on another file :
> 
> :- typeclass parser_state(T) where [
>     pred get_token(token, T, T),
>     mode get_token(out, in, out) is det,
>     func unget_token(token, T) = T,
>     mode unget_token(in, in) = out is det
> ].
> 
> And this is the error :
> 
> imputgen_bin.m:061: In instance declaration for
> imputgen_bin.m:061:   `int_parser.parser_state(list.list(scanner.token))':
> imputgen_bin.m:061:   the first argument is a type whose first argument is not
> imputgen_bin.m:061:   a variable.
> imputgen_bin.m:061:   (Types in instance declarations must be functors with
> imputgen_bin.m:061:   variables as arguments.)
> 
> I am not very familiar with instance in Mercury, and I don't understand what I have to modify. I hope you can help me.

As Tomas mentioned you will need to define the token_list/0 type in way
that conforms with what the language allows to appear in the head of
type class instance declarations, so:

    :- type token_list ---> token_list(list(token)).

And then the instance would be something like:

     :- instance parser_state(token_list) where [
          get_token(end,token_list([]),token_list([])),
          get_token(T,token_list([T | Ts]), token_list(Ts)),
          unget_token(T, token_list(Ts)) = token_list[T | Ts])
     ].

(Based on you previous post you were using the 0.13 release which
incorrectly did not detect the error in the instance declaration;
you're getting the error now because that has been fixed in one
of the intervening releases.)

Julien.