Consider this module for a blog entry that I will want to put in various generic collections that require Ord {-# OPTIONS -fglasgow-exts #-} module Blog.Types where import Data.Typeable import Data.Generics data BlogEntry = Entry EpochSeconds Name Email Title Body deriving (Eq,Ord,Read,Show,Typeable) newtype Name = Name String deriving (Eq,Ord,Read,Show,Typeable) newtype Title = Title String deriving (Eq,Ord,Read,Show,Typeable) newtype Body = Body String deriving (Eq,Ord,Read,Show,Typeable) It seems really unnecessarily verbose. Having to add the OPTION header AND import Data.Typeable and Data.Generics just to derive Typeable is a beat-down. It is even more of a beat-down to have to add a deriving clause for every newtype to make this all work nicely. Is there a way to make all types automatically derive everything unless there is an explicit instance declaration otherwise? {-# OPTIONS -fglasgow-exts -fgenerics -fderiving#-} module Blog.Types where data BlogEntry = Entry EpochSeconds Name Email Title Body newtype Name = Name String newtype Title = Title String newtype Body = Body String Isn't that much nicer? -Alex-