| It would be strange to name a function readFloat if its type is | RealFrac a => ReadS a. | I think the function should be named readFrac. For | compatibility, one could put the following into the prelude: | readFloat :: RealFloat a => ReadS a | readFloat = readFrac Well, that would be possible, but there are other naming inconsistencies in the Prelude; indeed, even in the numeric library. My inclination is to put up with the inconsistency. You have to look up the type to use it anyhow. Simon