On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 1:54 PM, Fermin Reig <ferminreig@fastmail.fm> wrote:
We could generalise:

mconcat:: [a] -> a
mconcat = foldr mappend memtpy

to:

mconcat:: Foldable t => t a -> a
mconcat = foldr mappend memtpy
-- even
-- mconcat = fold

I don't understand the appeal of generalizing the type of a function when the generalization already exists; but in this case it's not a viable option anyways because mconcat is a class method of Monoid, and the definition of the Foldable class already refers to Monoid. Creating a circular dependency of Monoid on Foldable would be a headache best avoided.

Regards,
Reid Barton