Mapping phantom <-> non-phantom

[Dario Teixeira <darioteixeira@yahoo.com>]

Hi,

Suppose you are using polymorphic variants as a phantom type to impose
certain restrictions on a data structure.  Is it possible in general to
formulate an equivalent structure that uses only regular variants, or is
the object system required for a full mapping?

As an example, consider the following structure constructed using phantom
types.  The "Text" and "Bold" nodes may appear anywhere in a document, but
the "Mref" and "See" nodes produce links, and links may not be the immediate
parents of other links:


module Phantom:
sig
        type inline_t = node_t list
        and node_t =
                private
                | Text of string
                | Bold of inline_t
                | Mref of string * inline_t
                | See of string

        type 'a t

        val text: string -> [> `Nonlink] t
        val bold: [< `Link | `Nonlink] t list -> [> `Nonlink] t
        val mref: string -> [< `Nonlink] t list -> [> `Link] t
        val see: string -> [> `Link] t
end =
struct
        type inline_t = node_t list
        and node_t =
                | Text of string
                | Bold of inline_t
                | Mref of string * inline_t
                | See of string

        type 'a t = node_t

        let text txt = Text txt
        let bold inl = Bold inl
        let mref ref inl = Mref (ref, inl)
        let see ref = See ref
end


Though a bit contrived, the following structure expresses the same
restrictions using only conventional variants:


module Regular =
struct
        type inline_t = super_node_t list
        and super_node_t =
                | Nonlink_node of nonlink_node_t
                | Link_node of link_node_t
        and nonlink_node_t =
                | Text of string
                | Bold of inline_t
        and link_node_t =
                | Mref of string * nonlink_node_t list
                | See of string
end


The version using PV-based phantom types doesn't require all this artifical
scaffolding, and is therefore preferable in my opinion.  However, the
ocamlyacc grammar for a document parser will naturally be closer to the
non-phantom version.  My doubt is therefore if one could devise a structure
using PV-based phantom types that becomes problematic to parse.

Thanks in advance for your time!
Kind regards,
Dario Teixeira



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