Haskell Language Role
Introduction
The TypeFamilies language extension allows the programmer to define type-level functions. What distinguishes type functions from non-GADT type constructors is that parameters of type functions can be non-parametric whereas parameters of type constructors are always parametric. This distinction is important to the correctness of the GeneralizedNewTypeDeriving extension. To explicate this distinction, roles are introduced in Haskell.
Remarks
See also SafeNewtypeDeriving.
