Hi.

I want to use object instances as modules/functors, more or less as shown below:

abstract class Lattice[E] extends Set[E] {
  val minimum: E
  val maximum: E
  def meet(x: E, y: E): E
  def join(x: E, y: E): E
  def neg(x: E): E
}

class Calculus[E](val lat: Lattice[E]) {
  abstract class Expr
  case class Var(name: String) extends Expr {...}
  case class Val(value: E) extends Expr {...}
  case class Neg(e1: Expr) extends Expr {...}
  case class Cnj(e1: Expr, e2: Expr) extends Expr {...}
  case class Dsj(e1: Expr, e2: Expr) extends Expr {...}
}

So that I can create a different calculus instance for each lattice (the operations I will perform need the information of which are the maximum and minimum values of the lattice). I want to be able to mix expressions of the same calculus but not be allowed to mix expressions of different ones. So far, so good. I can create my calculus instances, but problem is that I can not write functions in other classes that manipulate them.

For example, I am trying to create a parser to read expressions from a file and return them; I also was trying to write an random expression generator to use in my tests with ScalaCheck. Turns out that every time a function generates an Expr object I can't use it outside the function. Even if I create the Calculus instance and pass it as an argument to the function that will in turn generate the Expr objects, the return of the function is not recognized as being of the same type of the objects created outside the function.

Maybe my english is not clear enough, let me try a toy example of what I would like to do (not the real ScalaCheck generator, but close enough).

def genRndExpr[E](c: Calculus[E], level: Int): Calculus[E]#Expr = {
  if (level > MAX_LEVEL) {
    val select = util.Random.nextInt(2)
    select match {
      case 0 => genRndVar(c)
      case 1 => genRndVal(c)
    }
  }
  else {
    val select = util.Random.nextInt(3)
    select match {
      case 0 => new c.Neg(genRndExpr(c, level+1))
      case 1 => new c.Dsj(genRndExpr(c, level+1), genRndExpr(c, level+1))
      case 2 => new c.Cnj(genRndExpr(c, level+1), genRndExpr(c, level+1))
    }
  }
}

Now, if I try to compile the above code I get lots of

 error: type mismatch;  
 found   : plg.mvfml.Calculus[E]#Expr  
 required: c.Expr  
        case 0 => new c.Neg(genRndExpr(c, level+1))  

And the same happens if I try to do something like:

val boolCalc = new Calculus(Bool)
val e1: boolCalc.Expr = genRndExpr(boolCalc)

Please note that the generator itself is not of concern, but I will need to do similar things (i.e. create and manipulate calculus instance expressions) a lot on the rest of the system.

Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible to do what I want to do?

Help on this matter is highly needed and appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance.