On 29 July 2012 15:37, Thomas DuBuisson
Is 'bitSize' a useful function to use monomorphically? It seems a waste and irritating to have it return Maybe if I'm not using Integer.
That is a great point. Most my uses of 'bitSize' are monomorphic and Maybe would just be silly. OTOH, I'd be more than happy to fix up any polymorphic code to include a new BitSize constraint.
To make sure I understand this correctly: The current problem is that bitSize is a partial function *depending on the type* of its argument (currently it always returns _|_ for Integer, and is total for any other type). That does indeed seem like a Bad Idea. You propose to: 1. Remove "bitSize" from the Bits class. 2. Add a new class BitSize which only contains the "bitSize" method. Integer would not be an instance of this class. So, then: - I assume we want a deprecation cycle. How, will that work? - Do we have a formal definition of what bitSize means? E.g., could/should a (finite) ByteString be made an instance of this? / Thomas