Context bounds shortcut with higher kinded-types

Question

Is it possible to use the context bounds syntax shortcut with higher kinded-types?

trait One { def test[W   : ClassManifest]: Unit } // first-order ok
trait          


        

Answer 1

Note that implicitly[ClassManifest[List[_]]] is short for implicitly[ClassManifest[List[T] forSome {type T}]].

That's why it works: ClassManifest expects a proper type argument, and List[T] forSome {type T} is a proper type, but List is a type constructor. (Please see What is a higher kinded type in Scala? for a definition of "proper" etc.)

To make both ClassManifest[List[String]] and ClassManifest[List] work, we'd need to overload ClassManifest somehow with versions that take type parameters of varying kinds, something like:

class ClassManifest[T] // proper type
class ClassManifest[T[_]] // type constructor with one type parameter
class ClassManifest[T[_, _]] // type constructor with two type parameters
// ... ad nauseam

(On an academic note, the "proper" way to do this, would be to allow abstracting over kinds:

    class ClassManifest[T : K][K]

    implicitly[ClassManifest[String]] // --> compiler infers ClassManifest[String][*]
    implicitly[ClassManifest[List]] // --> compiler infers ClassManifest[List][* -> *]

)

Answer 2

Yes, it is, but your context bound type must have a higher kinded type parameter (which ClassManifest doesn't).

scala> trait HKTypeClass[CC[_]]
defined trait HKTypeClass

scala> implicit def listHKTC = new HKTypeClass[List] {}
listHKTC: java.lang.Object with HKTypeClass[List]

scala> def frob[CC[_] : HKTypeClass] = implicitly[HKTypeClass[CC]]
frob: [CC[_]](implicit evidence$1: HKTypeClass[CC])HKTypeClass[CC]

scala> frob[List]
res0: HKTypeClass[List] = $anon$1@13e02ed

Update

It's possible to use a type alias to allow a higher-kinded type parameter to be bounded by a first-order context bound type. We use the type alias as a type-level function to make a higher-kinded type out of the first-order type. For ClassManifest it could go like this,

scala> type HKClassManifest[CC[_]] = ClassManifest[CC[_]]
defined type alias HKClassManifest

scala> def frob[CC[_] : HKClassManifest] = implicitly[HKClassManifest[CC]]         
test: [CC[_]](implicit evidence$1: HKClassManifest[CC])HKClassManifest[CC]

scala> frob[List]                                                       
res1: HKClassManifest[List] = scala.collection.immutable.List[Any]

Note that on the right hand side of the type alias CC[_] is a first-order type ... the underscore here is the wildcard. Consequently it can be used as the type argument for ClassManifest.

Update

For completeness I should note that the type alias can be inlined using a type lambda,

scala> def frob[CC[_] : ({ type λ[X[_]] = ClassManifest[X[_]] })#λ] = implicitly[ClassManifest[CC[_]]]     
frob: [CC[_]](implicit evidence$1: scala.reflect.ClassManifest[CC[_]])scala.reflect.ClassManifest[CC[_]]

scala> frob[List]
res0: scala.reflect.ClassManifest[List[_]] = scala.collection.immutable.List[Any]