[haskell-gnuplot] histogram

[Henning Thielemann]

On Thu, 26 May 2011, Michael Litchard wrote:

> From what I understand, the following question is basic Haskell. I'm
> not getting it and I hope I can get clarification here.
> Let's start with newtype T.
>
> newtype T x y a = Cons String
>
> This looks like a partially applied type constructor. Is this right?

In this definition everything is fully applied, both the type constructor 
T and the data constructor Cons. That the type parameters 'x', 'y', 'a' on 
the left hand side are not used on the right hand side, is called "phantom 
types".
   http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Phantom_type

> Take for example
>
> lines          :: (Atom.C x, Atom.C y) => T x y (x,y)
> compared with
> histogram :: (Atom.C x) => Graph2DType.T Int Int (x,String)
>
> The first thing that strikes me is while the variables in lines are
> general ( x or y) the ones in histogram are not. This is where my
> attempt falls apart.

In (T x y a), the 'x' is the type of the values on the x axis, 'y' is the 
type of the values on the y axis and 'a' is the type of the plotted data. 
I thought that histogram data is discrete and thus chose Int as types for 
the axes.

> I'm referencing LYAH in an attempt to grasp this concept, and I feel I
> should have already.
> Could you explain the relationship between newtype T x y a = Cons
> String and histogram :: (Atom.C x) => Graph2DType.T Int Int
> (x,String)?

In the end 'lines' is just mapped to the word "lines" in the gnuplot 
script (curve.gp). But the 'lines' graph type of gnuplot requires a 
certain number and types of columns. This is what I express with the type 
"Graph2DType.T x y (x,y)". It means: X and Y axes may have different type, 
say Int and Float, and the actual data has two columns, one of the type of 
the X axis and one of the type of Y axis. (Atom.C x) restricts the choice 
of types to those that are supported by gnuplot in one column. That is, 
'x' cannot be e.g. (Double,Double) or (IO String).