On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Malcolm Wallace wrote:
Multi-parameter type classes, as used in your proposal, are also a language extension. Every implementation that supports MPTC also supports fundeps.
Hair-splitting reply: MPTC are not an extension, but the suppression of a restriction. Not being restricted to one TC parameter is also a simplification in some sense... FunDeps, otoh, are a completely new concept. Honest reply: I don't fully understand FunDeps and I don't want to learn (now), since the Collections should also be understandable for people less intelligent than me. (This is a design criterion used throughout, and I think my not-too-high intelligence has made this one of the Collection's success factors!) Well, that clarifies also some other issues. Nevertheless I didn't dare to write that in the "official rationale". Perhaps I should. Oh, and I also think of people who are more intelligent than me, but who have better things to do than learning a lot of new language concepts, when all they want is to solve their application problem. (This is an official design criterion.) Robert