Re: [ghc-steering-committee] please accept "Make Symbol a newtype over String"

Dear all, I struggle to have an opinion on these proposals on whether we should unify Nat/Natural, Symbol/String etc… But in this particular case, and as I've written in the proposal's thread, I fail to see how the proposed change addresses its motivations. So I'm leaning toward rejection right now. /Arnaud On Thu, 19 Jan 2023 at 21:36, Adam Gundry wrote:

Thanks for reviving this proposal, Chris. I support acceptance (and am happy to set aside the alternative of `type Symbol = String`, which is distinctly less compelling than `type Nat = Natural`).

Adam

On 19/01/2023 16:07, Chris Dornan wrote:

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And I have replied -- anybody with views on how we do this should checkout out the discussions at

https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/562#issuecomment-1397214... < https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/562#issuecomment-1397214...

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On 2023-01-19, at 15:46, Simon Peyton Jones mailto:simon.peytonjones@gmail.com>

wrote:

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Oleg has proposed that we do essentially the same trick Richard proposed to unify Nat and Natural, but with Symbol and String.

Well... not quite. I have commented on the proposal https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/562 https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/562

Simon

On Thu, 19 Jan 2023 at 15:28, Chris Dornan mailto:chris@chrisdornan.com> wrote:

While we are at it, here is another proposal that I think should be straightforward.

Oleg has proposed that we do essentially the same trick Richard proposed to unify Nat and Natural, but with Symbol and String.

Specifically, he is proposing that we replace @data Symbol@ with @newtype Symbol = MkSymbol String@. I won't try and encapsulate any further -- the original is concise and clear.

* Oleg's "Make Symbol a newtype over String" proposal:

https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/symbol-type/proposals/00... < https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/symbol-type/proposals/00...

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* For comparison, Richard's accepted "Unify Nat and Natural" proposal:

https://github.com/goldfirere/ghc-proposals/blob/natural/proposals/0000-unif... < https://github.com/goldfirere/ghc-proposals/blob/natural/proposals/0000-unif...

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I suggest we allow the usual two weeks to speak or forever hold your peace.

Chris

-- Adam Gundry, Haskell Consultant Well-Typed LLP, https://www.well-typed.com/

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