Generalizing some type signatures involving Int

[Henning Thielemann]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2018, Zemyla wrote:

> It's not actually impossible to have an in RAM structure that exceeds
> the largest positive value for Int. Data.Sequence.replicate does it by
> exploiting sharing. replicate n a uses O(lg n) space.
>
>> length $ let x = Data.Sequence.Replicate maxBound 'a' :> 'b' in mappend x x
> 0

One could also imagine a data structure like Multiset/Bag, where every 
element has a count and 'length' returns the total count.

> Also, I really would like to have all the length and count-based
> functions in base, containers, etc. take or return Words, but there's
> way too much inertia behind Ints, even if it means you have to check
> for negative numbers (which really runs counter to the main thesis
> behind Haskell; i.e. have your types say what you mean).

We would also need a bound-checked counterpart to Word. Currently, 
(-1)::Word or (2-3)::Word is accepted without a runtime error. 
Consequently, 'newTake (-1) xs' would likely return the full list xs.