creating instances of classes haskell

Question

So I have this class:

class Collection c where
    empty :: c key value
    singleton :: key -> value -> c key value
    insert :: Ord key => key -> value -> c key value -> c key value
    looKup :: Ord key => key -> c key value -> Maybe value
    delete :: Ord key => key -> c key value -> c key value
    keys :: c key value -> [key]
    keys x = map fst $ toList x
    values :: c key value -> [value]
    values c = map snd $ toList c
    toList :: c key value -> [(key, value)]
    fromList :: Ord key => [(key,value)] -> c key value
    fromList [] = empty
    fromList ((k, v):xs) = insert k v (fromList xs)

Why is this

instance Collection (PairList k v) where

a bad instantion of the class and this:

instance Collection PairList where

is a good one? I know that when making maybe an instance of Eq , this is how haskell does it:

instance Eq (Maybe m) where  
    Just x == Just y = x == y  
    Nothing == Nothing = True  
    _ == _ = False  

So instantiations accept parameters... So why is the first one like so?

Answer 1

Based on how c is used, Collection requires something of kind * -> * -> * .

> :k Collection
Collection :: (* -> * -> *) -> Constraint

PairList kv , though, has kind * .

Eq , on the other hand, expects something of kind * , which is exactly what Maybe m is.

> :k Eq
Eq :: * -> Constraint

( Maybe itself has kind * -> * , but applying it to a type variable produces something of kind * .)

Answer 2

The thing you put in the instance head will be substituted for the class variable everywhere. So, if we combine

class Collection c where
    empty :: c key value
    -- and other stuff, too, of course

and

instance Collection (PairList k v)

we get the type

    empty :: (PairList k v) key value

which doesn't make a lot of sense. But if we combine the class declaration with

instance Collection PairList

then we get the type

    empty :: PairList key value

which makes sense just fine.