A polytypic (or generic) program captures a common pattern of computation over different datatypes by abstracting over the
structure of the datatype. Examples of algorithms that can be defined polytypically are equality tests, mapping functions
and pretty printers.
A commonly used technique to implement polytypic programming is specialization, where a specialized version of a polytypic
function is generated for every datatype it is used at. In this paper we describe an alternative technique that allows polytypic
functions to be defined using Haskell’s class system (extended with multi-parameter type classes and functional dependencies).
This technique brings the power of polytypic programming inside Haskell allowing us to define a Haskell library of polytypic
functions. It also increases our flexibility, reducing the dependency on a polytypic language compiler.