Uncertainty and Error Checking of Liberal Coverage for Code Running under GHC 7.6

I had a smart bit of machine level hardware that worked on GHC 7.6, but no later versions. In hindsight, I'm not entirely sure why it ever worked, but no matter how much I would like to somehow bring back this functionality:

{-# LANGUAGE 
    PolyKinds 
  , FunctionalDependencies , FlexibleInstances , FlexibleContexts
  , OverlappingInstances
  , ScopedTypeVariables
  , TypeFamilies
  , UndecidableInstances
 #-}
module M where

import Data.Proxy

-- | A relation between a (maybe-partially-applied) type and that type fully
-- applied.
class Applied t (tab :: *) | t -> tab where
    -- | Fully apply a type @t@ with polymorphic arguments, yielding @tab@.
    applied :: Proxy t -> Proxy tab

instance Applied (t a) tab=> Applied t tab where
    applied _ = applied (Proxy :: Proxy (t a))

instance t ~ tab=> Applied t tab where -- always matches when `t` is kind `*`
    applied _ = Proxy :: Proxy tab

      

        
        
        
      

    

It depends on the library tagged

from GHC 7.6. We can use it like:

$ ghci-7.6.3
Prelude> :l M.hs
[1 of 1] Compiling M                ( M.hs, interpreted )
Ok, modules loaded: M.
*M> 
*M> :t applied (Proxy :: Proxy Either)
applied (Proxy :: Proxy Either) :: Proxy (Either a a1)
*M> (return $ Right 'a') == applied (Proxy :: Proxy Either)
True

      

        
        
        
      

    

However, this is not compiled, at least in GHC 7.8.3 or newer:

$ ghci-7.8.3
GHCi, version 7.8.3: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/  :? for help
Loading package ghc-prim ... linking ... done.
Loading package integer-gmp ... linking ... done.
Loading package base ... linking ... done.
Prelude> :l M.hs
[1 of 1] Compiling M                ( M.hs, interpreted )

M.hs:19:10:
    Could not deduce (Applied (t a0) tab)
      arising from the ambiguity check for an instance declaration
    from the context (Applied (t a) tab)
      bound by an instance declaration:
                 Applied (t a) tab => Applied t tab
      at M.hs:19:10-42
    The type variable ‘a0’ is ambiguous
    In the ambiguity check for:
      forall (k :: BOX) (k1 :: BOX) (t :: k1 -> k) tab (a :: k1).
      Applied (t a) tab =>
      Applied t tab
    To defer the ambiguity check to use sites, enable AllowAmbiguousTypes
    In the instance declaration for ‘Applied t tab’

M.hs:19:10:
    Illegal instance declaration for ‘Applied t tab’
      The liberal coverage condition fails in class ‘Applied’
        for functional dependency: ‘t -> tab’
      Reason: lhs type ‘t’ does not determine rhs type ‘tab’
    In the instance declaration for ‘Applied t tab’
Failed, modules load

      

        
        
        
      

    

I think the answer here is related, but I don't understand this sentence yet.

Perhaps I can work around this. The only place I use this class is in the form signature:

instance (Foo tab, Applied t tab)=> Bar (Proxy t) where

      

        
        
        
      

    

Which could mean that I want to do Foo

kind-polymorphic, but it's in a big complex library and I don't know if this change is possible.