[commit: ghc] overlapping-tyfams: Checkpoint on user manual. (7cbde84)

[Richard Eisenberg]

Repository : http://darcs.haskell.org/ghc.git/

On branch  : overlapping-tyfams

https://github.com/ghc/ghc/commit/7cbde847ee319dc1deca42c191f708c44fbc4429

>---------------------------------------------------------------

commit 7cbde847ee319dc1deca42c191f708c44fbc4429
Author: Richard Eisenberg <eir at cis.upenn.edu>
Date:   Thu Jun 20 23:38:49 2013 +0100

    Checkpoint on user manual.

>---------------------------------------------------------------

 docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml | 11 ++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml b/docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml
index fb9574c..75a2c68 100644
--- a/docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml
+++ b/docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml
@@ -5258,7 +5258,16 @@ type instance G (Char, a) = [a]  -- ILLEGAL overlap, as [Char] /= [Int]
 	  in turn relies on type family reduction. This condition of "apartness", as
 	  stated, is impossible to check, so we use this conservative approximation:
 	  two types are considered to be apart when the two types cannot be unified,
-	  even by a potentially infinite unifier.
+	  even by a potentially infinite unifier. Allowing the unifier to be infinite
+	  disallows the following pair of instances:
+<programlisting>
+type instance H x   x = Int
+type instance H [x] x = Bool
+</programlisting>
+          The type patterns in this pair equal if <literal>x</literal> is replaced
+	  by an infinite nesting of lists. Rejecting instances such as these is
+	  necessary for type soundness.
+	</para>
 
     <para> However see <xref linkend="ghci-decls"/> for the overlap rules in GHCi.</para>
     </sect3>