Zipper Comonads, Generically

Question

Given any container type we can form the (element-focused) Zipper and know that this structure is a Comonad. This was recently explored in wonderful detail in another Stack

Answer 1

The Comonad instance for zippers is not

instance (Diff t, Diff (D t)) => Comonad (Zipper t) where
    extract = here
    duplicate = fmap outOf . inTo

where outOf and inTo come from the Diff instance for Zipper t itself. The above instance violates the Comonad law fmap extract . duplicate == id. Instead it behaves like:

fmap extract . duplicate == \z -> fmap (const (here z)) z

Diff (Zipper t)

The Diff instance for Zipper is provided by identifying them as products and reusing the code for products (below).

-- Zippers are themselves products
toZipper :: (D t :*: Identity) a -> Zipper t a
toZipper (d :*: (Identity h)) = Zipper d h

fromZipper :: Zipper t a -> (D t :*: Identity) a
fromZipper (Zipper d h) = (d :*: (Identity h))

Given an isomorphism between data types, and an isomorphism between their derivatives, we can reuse one type's inTo and outOf for the other.

inToFor' :: (Diff r) =>
            (forall a.   r a ->   t a) ->
            (forall a.   t a ->   r a) ->
            (forall a. D r a -> D t a) ->
            (forall a. D t a -> D r a) ->
            t a -> t (Zipper t a)
inToFor' to from toD fromD = to . fmap (onDiff toD) . inTo . from

outOfFor' :: (Diff r) =>
            (forall a.   r a ->   t a) ->
            (forall a.   t a ->   r a) ->
            (forall a. D r a -> D t a) ->
            (forall a. D t a -> D r a) ->
            Zipper t a -> t a
outOfFor' to from toD fromD = to . outOf . onDiff fromD

For types that are just newTypes for an existing Diff instance, their derivatives are the same type. If we tell the type checker about that type equality D r ~ D t, we can take advantage of that instead of providing an isomorphism for the derivatives.

inToFor :: (Diff r, D r ~ D t) =>
           (forall a. r a -> t a) ->
           (forall a. t a -> r a) ->
           t a -> t (Zipper t a)
inToFor to from = inToFor' to from id id

outOfFor :: (Diff r, D r ~ D t) =>
            (forall a. r a -> t a) ->
            (forall a. t a -> r a) ->
            Zipper t a -> t a
outOfFor to from = outOfFor' to from id id

Equipped with these tools, we can reuse the Diff instance for products to implement Diff (Zipper t)

-- This requires undecidable instances, due to the need to take D (D t)
instance (Diff t, Diff (D t)) => Diff (Zipper t) where
    type D (Zipper t) = D ((D t) :*: Identity)
    -- inTo :: t        a -> t        (Zipper  t         a)
    -- inTo :: Zipper t a -> Zipper t (Zipper (Zipper t) a)
    inTo = inToFor toZipper fromZipper
    -- outOf :: Zipper  t         a -> t        a
    -- outOf :: Zipper (Zipper t) a -> Zipper t a
    outOf = outOfFor toZipper fromZipper

Boilerplate

In order to actually use the code presented here, we need some language extensions, imports, and a restatement of the proposed problem.

{-# LANGUAGE StandaloneDeriving #-}
{-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-}
{-# LANGUAGE FlexibleContexts #-}
{-# LANGUAGE DeriveFunctor #-}
{-# LANGUAGE TypeOperators #-}
{-# LANGUAGE UndecidableInstances #-}
{-# LANGUAGE RankNTypes #-}

import Control.Monad.Identity
import Data.Proxy
import Control.Comonad

data Zipper t a = Zipper { diff :: D t a, here :: a }

onDiff :: (D t a -> D u a) -> Zipper t a -> Zipper u a
onDiff f (Zipper d a) = Zipper (f d) a

deriving instance Diff t => Functor (Zipper t)
deriving instance (Eq (D t a), Eq a) => Eq (Zipper t a)
deriving instance (Show (D t a), Show a) => Show (Zipper t a)

class (Functor t, Functor (D t)) => Diff t where
  type D t :: * -> *
  inTo  :: t a -> t (Zipper t a)
  outOf :: Zipper t a -> t a

Products, Sums, and Constants

The Diff (Zipper t) instance relies on implementations of Diff for products :*:, sums :+:, constants Identity, and zero Proxy.

data (:+:) a b x = InL (a x) | InR (b x)
    deriving (Eq, Show)
data (:*:) a b x = a x :*: b x
    deriving (Eq, Show)

infixl 7 :*:
infixl 6 :+:

deriving instance (Functor a, Functor b) => Functor (a :*: b)

instance (Functor a, Functor b) => Functor (a :+: b) where
    fmap f (InL a) = InL . fmap f $ a
    fmap f (InR b) = InR . fmap f $ b


instance (Diff a, Diff b) => Diff (a :*: b) where
    type D (a :*: b) = D a :*: b :+: a :*: D b
    inTo (a :*: b) = 
        (fmap (onDiff (InL . (:*: b))) . inTo) a :*:
        (fmap (onDiff (InR . (a :*:))) . inTo) b
    outOf (Zipper (InL (a :*: b)) x) = (:*: b) . outOf . Zipper a $ x
    outOf (Zipper (InR (a :*: b)) x) = (a :*:) . outOf . Zipper b $ x

instance (Diff a, Diff b) => Diff (a :+: b) where
    type D (a :+: b) = D a :+: D b
    inTo (InL a) = InL . fmap (onDiff InL) . inTo $ a
    inTo (InR b) = InR . fmap (onDiff InR) . inTo $ b
    outOf (Zipper (InL a) x) = InL . outOf . Zipper a $ x
    outOf (Zipper (InR a) x) = InR . outOf . Zipper a $ x

instance Diff (Identity) where
    type D (Identity) = Proxy
    inTo = Identity . (Zipper Proxy) . runIdentity
    outOf = Identity . here

instance Diff (Proxy) where
    type D (Proxy) = Proxy
    inTo = const Proxy
    outOf = const Proxy

Bin Example

I posed the Bin example as an isomorphism to a sum of products. We need not only its derivative but its second derivative as well

newtype Bin   a = Bin   {unBin   ::      (Bin :*: Identity :*: Bin :+: Identity)  a}
    deriving (Functor, Eq, Show)
newtype DBin  a = DBin  {unDBin  ::    D (Bin :*: Identity :*: Bin :+: Identity)  a}
    deriving (Functor, Eq, Show)
newtype DDBin a = DDBin {unDDBin :: D (D (Bin :*: Identity :*: Bin :+: Identity)) a}
    deriving (Functor, Eq, Show)

instance Diff Bin where
    type D Bin = DBin
    inTo  = inToFor'  Bin unBin DBin unDBin
    outOf = outOfFor' Bin unBin DBin unDBin

instance Diff DBin where
    type D DBin = DDBin
    inTo  = inToFor'  DBin unDBin DDBin unDDBin
    outOf = outOfFor' DBin unDBin DDBin unDDBin

The example data from the previous answer is

aTree :: Bin Int    
aTree =
    (Bin . InL) (
        (Bin . InL) (
            (Bin . InR) (Identity 2)
            :*: (Identity 1) :*:
            (Bin . InR) (Identity 3)
        )
        :*: (Identity 0) :*:
        (Bin . InR) (Identity 4)
    )

Not the Comonad instance

The Bin example above provides a counter-example to fmap outOf . inTo being the correct implementation of duplicate for Zipper t. In particular, it provides a counter-example to the fmap extract . duplicate = id law:

fmap ( \z -> (fmap extract . duplicate) z == z) . inTo $ aTree

Which evaluates to (notice how it is full of Falses everywhere, any False would be enough to disprove the law)

Bin {unBin = InL ((Bin {unBin = InL ((Bin {unBin = InR (Identity False)} :*: Identity False) :*: Bin {unBin = InR (Identity False)})} :*: Identity False) :*: Bin {unBin = InR (Identity False)})}

inTo aTree is a tree with the same structure as aTree, but everywhere there was a value there is instead a zipper with the value, and the remainder of the tree with all of the original values intact. fmap (fmap extract . duplicate) . inTo $ aTree is also a tree with the same structure as aTree, but everywere there was a value there is instead a zipper with the value, and the remainder of the tree with all of the values replaced with that same value. In other words:

fmap extract . duplicate == \z -> fmap (const (here z)) z

The complete test-suite for all three Comonad laws, extract . duplicate == id, fmap extract . duplicate == id, and duplicate . duplicate == fmap duplicate . duplicate is

main = do
    putStrLn "fmap (\\z -> (extract . duplicate) z == z) . inTo $ aTree"
    print   . fmap ( \z -> (extract . duplicate) z == z) . inTo $ aTree    
    putStrLn ""
    putStrLn  "fmap (\\z -> (fmap extract . duplicate) z == z) . inTo $ aTree"
    print    . fmap ( \z -> (fmap extract . duplicate) z == z) . inTo $ aTree    
    putStrLn ""
    putStrLn "fmap (\\z -> (duplicate . duplicate) z) == (fmap duplicate . duplicate) z) . inTo $ aTree"
    print   . fmap ( \z -> (duplicate . duplicate) z == (fmap duplicate . duplicate) z) . inTo $ aTree