I personally like it if the documentation of re-exported classes just contain a summary, much like Data.Foldable does. The prelude documentation is quite long already. I would not object to making the links stand out a bit more though: a title 'More detailed descriptions' with a bulleted summary to 'laws' might do that.
On where the laws need to be: I think for foldable the right decision is made, there may be exceptions but I typically like to hear about the ideas behind things before I dive into the algebraic characterization.
Also, many thanks to the write-up of Foldable.
Best,
Sebastiaan
Ah, I misunderstood you as well. I agree that the laws should be included in the type class documentation. In fact, most of the documentation from the link should probably be moved into the documentation for the class, rather than a stand-alone section.
I'm not talking about whether they're first or last. They're currently not part of the class documentation *at all*. They're only in the Data.Traversable documentation.
On Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 06:51:42PM -0400, David Feuer wrote:
> The last time I went to look at the laws it took me a couple minutes to
> find them. I use them to write instances. Pretty important, IMO.
I agree the laws are important to document, I just don't think they
belong at the top of the module. The beginner to intermediate users
will be using the library and existing instances for some time before
they start to write their own instances.
If more modules adopt something like the style of the new Data.Foldable,
experienced users will know to look for the laws at the end, if not
still present at the top of the module.
Of course perhaps the community would prefer the original Laws first
format, I'm fine with that emerging as the consensus. Perhaps worthy
of a separate thread (made it so).
Of course the conjectured users who might most benefit from not being
intimidated by being exposed to laws before they're ready to understand
them might not be present on this forum...
--
Viktor.
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