Re: GHC error message on type mismatch

Hi everyone

On 07 Nov 2013, at 23:54, Daniel Trstenjak wrote:

Hi Simon,

...

On Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 02:02:06PM +0000, Simon Peyton-Jones wrote: The motivation is this. Consider

f True

where f :: Int -> Char

Then f *expects* an argument of type Int but the *actual* argument has type Bool

Does that help?

If you would switch the meaning of 'Expected' and 'Actual', than it still could make perfectly sense and my brain seems to tend to this switched meaning.

Yeah I can see how that may happen. f's argument type is *actually* an Int, but it was used in a way that caller *expects* it to have a type Bool

I think my main issue is the word 'Actual'. I seem to associate something more authoritative with this word and not just a wrongly given type by the user, and on the other side 'Expected' doesn't feel authoritative enough.

Yes, I think the combination of the words 'Expected' and 'Actual' is irritating me and that I'm perceiving 'Actual' as the more authoritative one.

Perhaps:

Couldn't match type `A' with `B´ Real type: B Given type: A

Or instead of 'Given', like others have suggested: 'Provided' or 'Supplied'.

Greetings, Daniel _______________________________________________ Glasgow-haskell-users mailing list Glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users