#9820: Apparently inconsistent behaviour in the presence of OverlappingInstances -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: kosmikus | Owner: Type: bug | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: 7.8.3 Keywords: | Operating System: Architecture: Unknown/Multiple | Unknown/Multiple Difficulty: Unknown | Type of failure: Blocked By: | None/Unknown Related Tickets: | Test Case: | Blocking: | Differential Revisions: -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- This report is inspired by http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27051640 /strange-behavior-when-adding-constraint-to-instance I'm not sure if it is a bug, but it certainly feels strange and inconsistent to me, so I'd like to get some clarification. Here's a self-contained example of the behaviour: {{{#!hs {-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances, OverlappingInstances #-} module Overlap where class C a where foo :: a -> a instance C a where foo = id instance C Int where foo = (+1) -- Note that this one does not mention class C anywhere: class D a where bar :: a -> a instance D a where bar = foo -- this works and picks the 'C a' instance always -- The following does not compile without IncoherentInstances: {- baz :: a -> a baz = foo -} }}} I'm surprised that the definitions of `bar` and `baz` are treated differently. Shouldn't they either both require `IncoherentInstances`, or both work? -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/9820 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler